Pseudo Incest
by gabeclone
Summary: This is a story where Lincoln collects a group of girls, to form the kind of relationship that he needs. It's not a harem... Not really. Though, it could be mistaken for one, if you don't really know what a harem is. I go into a lot of detail on how the relationship came into being. This is more of a deconstruction piece, than anything else.
1. Chapter 1

I had this idea, and I just had to write it. Enjoy filling your face with it.

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"I accidentally broke Mr. Grouse's window while practicing my pitch, but I swear it wasn't my fault." Lynn's voice sounded loud against the general muttering of everyone else. "Lucy's pet bat flew into my face just as I was about to throw the ball, and it went way off course"

"Well hey, at least you know Lucy's up to Batting in your corner. Ha ha!"

"Seriously Luan? Why do all your puns suck so bad?"

"Hey, I'll have you know I'm a master of word play construction. I'm a certified Pungineer. Ha ha."

"Okay… That one wasn't bad. I'll give you that."

Lisa observed the unfolding events before her, waiting for her gathered family units to calm down, knowing full well that they wouldn't unless someone made them. That was the trouble with holding a sibling meeting without Lincoln, he was often integral to that process. Still, Lori could and would do in a pinch. Clearing her throat, she caught Lori's attention and motioned for her eldest sister to do her part.

"Alright everyone, be quiet." Lori rapped the back of a hair brush against her dresser. "We were all literally called here for a reason. Let's get this over with. Lisa?" She ceded the floor to her more scientifically minded sibling.

"As I'm sure you've all noticed, Lincoln isn't here." Lisa began the meeting, drawing their attention to the absence of their mutual relation.

"Yeah, I was sort of wondering about that." Luna rasped.

"Where is he?" Leni asked.

"His presence would be counterproductive in this case, as he's the one we're going to be talking about today."

"Why, did he do something wrong?" Lola raised her hand. Lowering it again, as a devious look overtook her expression. "Oooo, can we get him in trouble? If so, I call dibs on blackmailing him."

"That's not how we do things Lola." Lori denied her.

"Eh," The junior pageant queen shrugged. "Can't blame me for trying." What was left unsaid was that, that was the way Lola did things. Everyone else was just too polite to call her on it.

"No, this isn't something that can be leveraged against him." Lisa cut in. "I'm sure you've all become aware over the last month or so, of Lincoln's recent distraction from the family."

"Yeah, but he's just spending more time with Ronnie Anne." Lori responded. "Their relationship has gotten more serious lately, and it's literally the cutest thing ever."

"Oooo, do you have pictures?" Leni asked.

"Oh course." Lori brought out her cell phone and flipped through pictures, while Leni looked on over her shoulder.

"That's so totally cute!" The ditzy girl squealed.

"I know right?"

"Excuse me!" Lisa rapped the hair brush against the dresser to get their attention. "That's not the full scope of the problem!"

"I don't think it's a problem at all." Lori objected.

"That's because you don't have all the details." Lisa returned. "Lincoln isn't just dating Ronnie Anne Santiago." She had everyone's attention now. "From my observations I've concluded that He's dating six girls in total, including Ronnie Anne Santiago."

There was a stunned silence, that by Lisa's count, lasted twelve point seven nine seconds.

"WHAT!" Lori exploded "Lincoln's cheating on Ronnie Anne?!"

"That's not cool dude, someone needs to talk to him about that." Luna said.

"I'M GOING TO TIE HIM UP INTO A PRETZEL!" Lori raged, even as the other gathered sister exhibited various levels of anger.

"BE QUIET!" Lisa boomed from her pocket sized megaphone, instantly calming the frenzy and bringing a hush the the gathered siblings. Thank goodness Lincoln and their parents were currently out of the house. "Lincoln isn't cheating on Ronnie Anne Santiago."

"W-what?! But you just said he was also dating five other girls!" Lori sounded, her voice slightly hoarse from her recent bout of screaming.

"He is. However, contrary to the conclusions you've all prematurely landed upon, all females dating Lincoln seem to be aware and consenting of the situation."

"W-what?!" Everyone exclaimed, silence once again descending.

"How is that possible?" Lori asked. "Who would agree to that?" She seemed to be struggling with something. "I mean, Lincoln's great, but… But…" She wrung her hands together.

"I can't say how the situation came to be." Lisa straightened her glasses. "As for who though… I'm sure you'll recognize some of, if not most of, the names on the list. Starting from the youngest members of Lincoln little harem and working up from there. Haiku Aryn Rose."

Lucy gasped softly, though still loud enough that she drew attention from everyone else. Because Lucy gasping audibly was the equivalent of anyone else shouting in shock.

"Yes, Haiku." Haiku's parents must have been the creative sort, otherwise Lisa couldn't see them condemning their child to such an… Interesting name. "You attend poetry club meetings with her, I believe." Lisa looked over the rim of her glasses as her darkly inclined sister. "She won't be the last recognized name on this list." She cleared her throat. "Yes, Ronnie Anne Santiago." There was no gasp, and no need to pause, as everyone already knew that Ronnie Anne was on the list. "Maggie Fawn Blake." Lisa did pause this time, looking up at her sisters for any sign that they knew who that was. Expressionless faces met her from all sides. Even from Luan, who Lisa initially believed would recall the girl. "Hmm… Well, moving on." She cleared her throat again. "Samantha Sharp."

"S-sam?!" Lisa was forced to pause again, as Luna stuttering interrupted her. Of course, Lisa was well aware that Luna's crush was actually a girl. In the year since the fiasco with the love letter, she'd had more than enough time to investigate… It didn't hurt that Luna had also told them that she was bisexual. "Why would she? How could he?…" Luna never finished either question out loud.

"What's wrong Luna." Luan asked her, concern in her voice, as she notably didn't crack a pun.

"I believe Luna is distressed because Samantha Sharp is the girl that Luna is romantically interested in." Lisa adjusted her glasses. She waited a few moments before continuing. "Carlota Casagrande."

"What!?" Lori burst. "Carlota is also dating Lincoln? But Ronnie Anne is dating him too!"

"That's kind of…" Lynn trailed off a mixture of confusion and vague disgust pulling her features.

"Isn't that illegal?" Lori turned to Lisa for answers.

"Yes and no. It's not illegal for two members of the same family to date a single person. However, I don't believe that's what you were referring to. To answer your real question, yes, their relationship, as it is currently, is illegal. As Carlota is eighteen and Lincoln is merely twelve, relations between them can be considered statutory rape… Assuming, of course, that they are engaging in sexual intercourse."

The atmosphere suddenly became significantly more chilled, as the gathered sisters considered the situation at hand.

"We've gotta do something." Lynn muttered.

"Hold off on that for now." Lisa held her hand up to stall them. "There's still one more name on the list."

"You said you were listing them from youngest to oldest." Leni remarked, in a startling display of previously not exhibited recollection. And the atmosphere became even colder.

"Yes." Lisa coughed awkwardly. This meeting wasn't going exactly as she'd planned. "The last name on the list is Carol Pingrey."

"C-Carol?" Lori gasped, before her expression darkened.

"As bad as this all sounds." Lisa tried getting the meeting back on track. "I think Lincoln knows exactly what he's getting into." She explained. "Yes, we'll still need to talk to him, but study leads me to believe that this is something he's set up deliberately."

"You'll have to explain that." Lori spoke for the rest of the siblings.

"Right… I have a hypothesis that Lincoln sought out and chose those girls, in particular, because of their similarities to us. Six of us specifically."

"What?" Lori returned, somewhat flatly.

"I theorize that Lincoln built himself a harem of females who most closely resemble us, specifically because they resemble us."

"I- I don't…" Luna didn't finish, though what she said was enough. Clearly they needed more convincing.

"Carol Pingrey is a close match for Lori, both in terms of her physical appearance, and her personality. Lincoln chose her for her resemblance." She began. "Carlota Casagrande is similar to Leni is many observable ways. She doesn't look anything like Leni, and she's somewhat more… Grounded, but her hobbies, interests, and a lot of the more subtle nuances of her character are accurate matches for Leni." Lisa stopped to look around at her audience, seeing incomprehension on their faces. "Samantha Sharp is mentally an almost perfect copy of Luna. As perfect a copy as can be achieved with such differing background anyway. She's a musically inclined female with a relaxed attitude towards life. Maggie Fawn Blake doesn't, at first glance, appear to be a good match for Luan. She's a typically unhappy girl, who almost never smiles and doesn't have a sense of humor. However, she loves mimes, and she had a sense of art that rivals Luan's own. She's a bit of an outlier in this theory. Ronnie Anne Santiago is a rough and tumble sporty girl, who likes to wrestle. She's what's typically referred to as a "Tom Boy"" Lisa made air quotes with her fingers as she said it. "She's a parallel to Lynn. Finally, we have Haiku Ayrn Rose, who's as close to being Lucy as Carol is to being Lori."

"S-so, what are you saying? That Lincoln is romantically interested in us, so he's found girls who are like us?" Lori stuttered.

"That's one possible answer. I'm leaning more towards the conclusion that Lincoln has been subconsciously primed, by growing up with us, to be attracted to people who are similar to us. Like how a child will often look for a mate that's close to their parent. Lincoln though, has had more contact with us than he has our parents. He's built himself a relationship that allows him to be with each personality type he's been primed to find attractive." She wiped a smudge off the lens of her glasses with her shirt. "Still, your explanation is plausible, so we shouldn't discount it. The situation will just require more study before I can determine one way or the other. I simply thought you all should know, and sought to bring it to your attention.

"Huh…" Lynn muttered.

"I wonder if Lincoln would be willing to let me date Sam as well." Everyone turned to stare at Luna.

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Chapter notes:

I'm probably going to use that Pungineer joke again in the future, because I actually thought of it for something else.

Maggie and Haiku don't actually have last names, that I'm aware of. I made them up for this story.

Man, I wish I had Luan's ability to just pull a pun from thin air.


	2. Chapter 2

So here's the deal. I couldn't do this as a story. Not with the introduction I gave. Instead, this will be a series of pieces exploring the relationship and its effect on those around it.

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"So… Uh… Sigh." Lucy fumbled for something to say. This wasn't how she pictured her next conversation with Haiku, but Lori demanded answers and Lisa set up these interviews so the answers could, at least, be had in an organized fashion. Lucy didn't have a problem with that. She just wished that she didn't have to be the one to do it.

Haiku sat across from her, her burgundy dress sweeping the floor. One of her eyes hidden behind her hair. Refusing to say anything, as she stared blankly at Lucy. Lucy never used to be unnerved by that look. But then, she'd never been in this situation before.

"Why are you dating Lincoln?" She decided to just ask.

Haiku blinked at her slowly. Never before had silence made Lucy so uncomfortable.

"He's a dulcet spot of color in my otherwise ink stained existence." She fell silent.

"Okay."

And that was that. Lucy rose from her seat and left the room. Surely Haiku could find her own way out of the house.

...

"Doesn't it piss you off that Lincoln is dating other girls?" Lynn interrogated her. "It's like he's just using you!"

"If you think that, than you obviously don't know Lincoln as well as you think you do." Ronnie answered, knowing her response would just piss the other girl off even more.

"What do you mean I don't know Lincoln?! He's my brother!"

"And yet, you think that he's a monstrous enough person to play with the emotions of six girls, for the fun of it."

"I don't think he's a monster!"

"Could have fooled me. You look like you're one step away from chasing him down and snapping both his legs."

Lynn visibly calmed herself. Breathing in deeply and letting it out through her nose.

"Though if you tried to hurt him." Ronnie grabbed her attention again, a chill in her voice. "I'd have to destroy you."

Lynn reeled back in shock, before an hostile snarl twisted her lips and she aggressively invaded Ronnie Anne's space.

"I would never do that." She hissed.

"Oh please. Lincoln's my boyfriend."

"Yeah, you and five other girls." Lynn scoffed, interrupting her.

"Lincoln's my boyfriend." She started again. "We tell each other everything." She leaned forward as well, her face only an inch from Lynn's "You wouldn't hurt him? What about all those times you threatened to beat him with a bat if he didn't do what you told him to do? What about those times you actually beat him with your fists when he refused?"

"Tho-those are different." Lynn stuttered.

"They're not, and you know it."

"I don't have to take this. Get out of my house!" Lynn jabbed her finger towards the door.

"Fine, but only because I'm missing out on some alone time with Lincoln anyway." She rose from her seat, treading across the room, and slipping out the door.

...

The girl across from her frowned grumpily. Of course, she'd been doing that since she came in. From the looks of things, it looked like she'd never smiled in her entire life, and Luan couldn't imagine where she was supposed to have known the girl from.

"So. You're dating Lincoln. How's that going?" She said, breaking the silence for the first time since the other girl, Maggie apparently, came in.

A flash of what might have been happiness, on anyone else, crossed Maggie's face. "Are you seriously asking me that?"

"Uh, I don't know. What else am I supposed to ask?"

"Ask me if I'm happy with him."

"You don't look happy… Like, at all…"

"I would have expected more from an artist like you. You should know that happiness isn't only skin deep."

"Right… I'm sorry, I know this is rude, but it's been bugging me for a while. Where do I know you from?"

"You entertained at my last birthday party."

Thinking about it… "Oh, right. I was a mime, I think."

"Yep."

"Okay, so… Are you happy with Lincoln?"

"I'm happier than I've ever been." Her response was very deadpan, and somehow Luan didn't think that was that high a bar to beat.

"That's good… I guess…"

...

"Hey Sam." Luna rasped in that adorable way she did, when Sam came into the room.

Squeezing a shoulder as she came up to her, she sat down on the bottom bunk beside her second favorite Loud.

"Cool room."

"Yeah…" She seemed to be searching for something to say.

"So, I know why I'm here." Sam began, taking pity on the other girl. "You're all wondering how I got involved with Lincoln."

Luna nodded, gazing at her expectantly.

"It's not that complicated really." She felt a gentle smile settle on her lips. "He can he pretty convincing when he wants to be." Lifting her hand to Luna's back, she gave it a good rub. "He approached me with his plan, and at first I was pretty skeptical. But, you know, why not? He asked me what reason I had to refuse, and I didn't really have one. It wasn't enough to get me to agree, but it was enough that I couldn't flat out refuse." She curled her fingers and scratched her nails lightly across Luna's back. "I thought I might as well try it out. And you know… I can't say I'm unhappy with my choice."

"What if it didn't work out?" Luna asked, her voice wavering.

"I've never felt it was worth worrying about things I can't control."

Luna nodded, dropping her head to look at the floor.

"Hey." She forced Luna to look at her with her hand. "You want to know what convinced me, more than anything else, to try this?

Luna nodded slowly.

"That Lincoln understands what he's asking of us, and he refused to limit our choices." She gazed into Luna's eyes. "If we want to leave him, he loves us enough to let us go, and if we want to date someone else, while we date him, he's not a hypocrite."

Sam's smile widened with Luna's eyes, because she'd told Luna that for one specific reason. Lincoln was her boyfriend, after all, and they told each other everything.

"Would you like to go out with me?" She asked her second favorite Loud.

"Yes." And just like that Luna tied for first.

...

"You're not hurting Lincoln are you?" Leni asked the girl across from her.

"Girl, I would never do that." Carlota answered. "He's too lovable.

"He totes is, isn't he?" Leni agreed.

...

"Well, I'm waiting." Lori sat across from Carol, her arms crossed as she glowered at her.

Carol felt the urge to shrink under her best friends gaze, but gathered her courage and sat up straight.

"I know it looks bad, but I promise I would never hurt Lincoln."

"Than what are you doing Carol?"

"I… When Lincoln came to me with his idea, I thought it was silly. I thought he was joking, until he made it clear to me how serious he was. I refused, at first, of course. I couldn't see myself dating him after all. We're so close." She pointed between to Lori and herself. "That I always felt like Lincoln was My little brother too." She took a deep breath. "I was hoping that my refusing would end it, but it didn't. I found out that it continued on without me. He even managed to get a friend of Luna's in on it! After that, I came back to him and agreed. I was hoping that doing so would allow me close enough to keep an eye on the situation without getting sucked in myself… But…" She couldn't meet Lori's eyes anymore. Dropping her head, to look at her lap. "I couldn't help it. Lincoln's just so mature for his age. He's so kind, and gentle, and loving. He's considerate, and warm. I failed."

"I can see that."

"But." Her spine straightened, as her resolve hardened. "I don't regret it." She matched eyes with Lori. "I'm sorry if it upsets you, but I like him a lot, and if you asked me to break up with him… I don't know what I would do."

Lori studied her closely, and sighed.

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Chapter notes:

I'll explore why Carlota joined more in other pieces. A conversation with Leni was never going to get that detailed though. Not this version of Leni anyway.

I hope the reasons I gave for each girl, who actually explained why they joined, were believable. Make sure to tell me in the comments. I like reading constructive criticism


	3. Chapter 3

Here's chapter three of this… Thing… Whatever it is. Anyway, this chapter takes place before the previous two on the timeline. I explain this now, so that nobody get's confused while reading it.

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There was something wrong with the glide of her skate. She lifted it above her head and gazed intently at the bottom… Was it the mounts and wheel frame? Grasping the parts between two fingers, she attempted to shift them in place. If they'd moved than it would have told her that she needed to tighten, or possibly entirely redo, the connection between them. They seemed pretty solid though, so they probably weren't the issue. The wheels than. She slowly spun each of them, looking for the problem. Ah what? The second and third wheel had massive chunks missing from them! How did that happen? She felt like she would have remember rolling over something that would have done that… Maybe Lalo took a bite out of them?… That seemed unlikely. Whatever. She'd need to go to the skate shop later to replace them, but for now she had a… She was hanging out with Lincoln in a bit.

She placed her skate on her bed so she'd remember it later, and shrugged on a hoodie. Strolling from her room and out of the house, to meet Lincoln at the nearest bus stop. Coming to a stop near the rain shelter than marked the bus stop, the bus wasn't there yet, she exhaled softly and set herself to waiting. Scrolling through menus on her phone and shifting from foot to foot, she breathed a sigh of relief when the bus finally pulled up to the curb, and a stream of people stepped off, including a familiar white haired boy in an orange polo shirt.

"Lincoln!" She called him over when he didn't immediately spot her. He looked distracted by something.

"Whu?" He jerked his head up in surprise, glancing around to see who'd called out to him. "Oh, hey Ronnie Anne!" He waved back when his eyes landed on her.

"Hey Lame-o." She returned, making her way over to him, as he made his way to her. "Thinking deep thoughts?"

"What?" He looked briefly confused, before realization crossed his face. "Oh, no. I was just distracted by something." He gazed intently at her, and she could feel her face heating up. "So what'v you got planned for us today?"

She slugged him in the arm, partially because she just wanted to, and partially because she wanted to distract him. It would suck if he thought she was blushing or something, when She Clearly Wasn't! It was just hot outside, and she was wearing a sweater. A piece of her normal outfit or not, it probably wasn't the smartest to wear it on such a warm day. Whatever, she liked it. She wasn't taking it off. She turned away as he muttered curses, and waved over her shoulder for him to follow her.

"A new arcade opened up and I thought we could check it out."

"Huh, that's interesting." His voice floated from behind her, as he followed her down the sidewalk. "A lot of arcades have been closing recently. It's so much easier to play games at home now, that I wouldn't think an actual arcade would be able to make money these days."

"Yeah, I thought that too." She hadn't, but she wasn't going to tell him that. "But this place is going for a retro feel, I think. They've been bringing in a lot of the really old games that are actually pretty hard to get your hands on these days. Plus, I hear that there's a little cafe in the back that actually sells food… Like real food, not just candy and soda."

"Oh, that actually pretty nice." He came up beside her. "If the food it good, people might even come just for that. The arcade would just be a bonus at that point."

"Mmhmm."

They fell into a comfortable silence for the next few minutes of walking, until they stopped in front of the arcade. Wide and tall windows provided an uninterrupted view of the machines inside. There were some classics in there, like Horizon, or Typing of the Dead, but most of the space seemed to be taken up by more modern games. It was interesting though. They had a rhythm game called Crypt of the Necrodancer in there, played on a huge screen, and controlled by a dance pad. It looked pretty cool actually.

They opened the door on the far end of the windowed front, and stepped into an interior that was thankfully air conditioned, and actually quite a bit quieter than she'd been expecting. It was still pretty loud, but she wouldn't have to shout to make herself heard.

"Oh, this is cool." She glanced around, taking it all in. "What do you want to play first?"

"Well I don't really want to play an educational game right now." Which disqualified Typing of the Dead and Blood Bank, a fighting game with super realistic injuries. Rated M, because of course it was; it played double duty as one of those games that only exists to create controversy, and an honest medical learning tool when it came out. It was a bit surprising to even find it here actually. "And we could play most of the old school games, like Horizon, on Lori's old console." He started towards the dance pads. "Let's try Crypt of the Necrodancer. It sounds cool, and I kind of want to move around right now."

"Alright, sounds good." Catching up and overtaking him, she jogged to a set of free dance pads. "Just get ready to be absolutely trashed."

Up, Up, Left, Down. A dancing ogre thing was chasing her, and she didn't have a weapon that let her kill it from a distance. Down-Left, she dropped a bomb and continued dancing away, until it exploded and took out the ogre. It kind of sucked. She could have used that bomb to blow up the shop walls and get more money.

Not that she was paying a lot of attention to him while they were playing the game, because she wasn't! But during the few times that she did glance over, he didn't look like he was having as much fun as she was. A smile parted his lips during the high action points, but when the beat slowed and they were just dancing through the empty levels looking for loot, the smile would drop. A look of concentration would have been fine, but… he looked a kind of… Sad?

When they died to the boss, she took him away to the cafe in the back. Through another door, with large windows on either side, it was significantly quieter on the other side. With the doors shut, she wondered if the management had paid to sound proof the cafe portion of the place. It was nice. Quiet enough to hold a private conversation, with the lights of the arcade area flashing through the glass. She ordered them two pepper-jack grilled cheese sandwiches, with tomato slices in the middle, and a couple of lemonades, and brought them to his chosen table when they were done.

"So what's been going on with you Lincoln?" She didn't know something was wrong for sure, so this was as good a way as any to start the conversation.

"Oh, you know, it's been pretty normal at home."

"So completely insane than?"

He normally would have rolled his eyes, or given her a flat look for that remark.

"Ha, yeah… I guess…"

"Okay." She sighed, "What's wrong with you?"

"I… You're going to think this is stupid."

"I probably will." She agreed, "But I'm still asking you, and I still want to know."

He breathed in, seeming to brace himself, and brought his gaze up to look her right in the eye.

"What are we?"

What?

"What?"

"The two of us." He clarified unnecessarily. "We've doing going out like this for over a year now. Are we dating?" She could feel her face heating up again at the suggestion. "Or are we just friends?"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha." She laughed, not at all nervously. "You know we're best friends Lincoln."

He sighed heavily, looking actually sort of depressed.

"Right…" Firming himself back up, he looked up at her again. "Than this is going to sound really stupid, but I need your help finding love."

He was right, that did sound stupid. It Sounded So Stupid THAT SHE DIDN'T EVEN FEEL LIKE CRYING, BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE STUPID!

"What do you mean?" She kept her voice was wavering. She had something in her throat, and it would suck if Lincoln thought she was going to cry or something.

"I… I need something." He looked down at his plate, picking at the sandwich with the straw from the lemonade. "Have you ever felt alone, even in a house full of people?" She hadn't. "I want you to help me gather together some people… So that I can feel loved."

What?

"Who?"

He breathed out deeply, before beginning to list people. "Carlota, Sam Sharp, Haiku, Carol Pingrey, and you… If you'll have me."

"What?!" She exploded, torn between her outrage that Lincoln wanted her help in gathering a harem, and… Differently feeling outrage that he wanted her to be a part of the harem… It was clearly still outrage though, with her face feeling like it was on fire, what else could it be!? HUH?! "You want me to help you make a harem?!"

"No." His response cut through the swelling haze of rage, AND NOTHING ELSE! "It's not a harem, that's unfair."

"Well what else would you call it?" She demanded. "You're asking me to gather you a group of girls for the sole purpose of loving you?"

"No." He repeated. "A harem is a loose group who's one point of connection is whoever is at the center of it." He looked intently into her eyes. "I don't want that. I want to form a group that loves itself more than any of them love me… I'm explaining this badly…" He was. "Most think that only the relationship between those who are related, or married can be called family, but that's not true. A family is whatever you decide it is. I call Clyde my brother, even though we're not related, and you wouldn't dispute that. I want to form a family with you." Her face felt like it was on fire. "And Carlota, and Sam, and Carol. I want all of you to love each other as much as you love me, and I don't want to bind you to me if you can't love me in the way I wish you would."

"Okay…" She managed to strangle out. "That's different, but why would I help you?" She looked away.

"Ronnie Anne." She looked back. His expression was pleading. "You have no idea how much this means to me. Please help me. You said we were best friends. You don't have to love me in the way I wish you would, but please be part of this family. I couldn't bear it if you left."

She felt her breath escape her.

"Okay…"

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Chapter notes:

I think I'm almost never going to show things from Lincoln's perspective. I might once or twice, but I want the readers to experience him mostly through the eyes of those around him.

I've decided that some things are cannon to my region of the Loud House multiverse… I won't call them out specifically, but I'm sure you'll figure out what they are.


	4. Chapter 4

The next five chapters are going to take place in a relatively straightforward timeline. The thing with Ronnie Anne happened first, than this chapter takes place a few days later. The chapter after this will take place a few weeks after this one.

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Heh. They were joking right? Carol turned her head, and looked them over from the corner of her eye. Lincoln and Ronnie Anne, standing side by side, staring at her anxiously, as though they expected a serious answer from her. She knew Lincoln pretty well, and this didn't seem like the kind of joke he would play. Maybe his little girlfriend came up with it.

Of course, just from what she could read of their expressions, it looked like it was the other way around. The girl looked really uncomfortable, so maybe she thought it up, but didn't think he'd actually go through with it.

"You're joking right?" They were, they had to be, but she still had to ask.

"No" Lincoln held her gaze, his face setting to show how serious he was. "Will you join our family?"

So maybe they weren't joking? It was unbelievable, but Lincoln wasn't This good an actor.

"Okay, first of all, what do you mean by that?" This all needed some serious clarification. "What does joining your family mean?"

"If you're open to it, we're hoping that you'll join us in and open friendship, kinship, and…" He suddenly looked a little nervous, his gaze flickering as he fought to keep his eyes on hers. "Romance."

"No." Seriously? Seriously. She didn't want to be so harsh, but it was probably best in this case. This wasn't a good idea. There were so many issues with it that she seriously couldn't even name them all. It was best that she just shut them down without any wiggle room. Hopefully they'd give up on it. She'd hate to see Lincoln try to go through with it and get hurt, because that was the only outcome she could even seriously consider.

"Oh." His head dropped, and his shoulders slumped. It was enough that she had to restrain herself from wrapping him up in a one armed hug. Doing that wouldn't help. It would just give him false hope.

 **And with that out of the way.**

"Could you repeat that?" Sam sat up from her lazily reclined position.

She looked over the two standing in front of her. One of them was Lincoln, Luna's little brother. He was pretty cool as far as she could tell from her limited experience with him. Though she couldn't claim to know him that well. She didn't spend that much time around Luna's family when they hung out.

The other one was… Some girl. Sam wouldn't lie and say she had any idea who she was. She was probably a friend of Lincoln's, otherwise she wouldn't be here, but that's about all Sam could guess at.

"Will you join our family?" He said again, breathing in and out to calm his visible nerves.

That sounded fine, for the most part. She meant, it sounded innocent enough, but also, she really wanted to know what he meant. It wouldn't be cool if she agreed to it, only to later find out that they wanted her to do something super embarrassing. She wouldn't do it, but she didn't like going back on her word.

"I mean…" She paused, thinking about what she was going to say. "That sounds interesting, but I don't think I can give you an answer until I know what you mean by that."

He breathed in deeply, tilting his head back and looking up into the open sky, as he seemed to gather his thoughts.

"I… I don't know how to tell you about this, especially since the last person we asked just flat out refused." She quirked an eyebrow. The last person? "I'm just going to be totally honest about this, so don't stop me until I say I'm finished, okay?" She nodded her agreement. "I'm doing something that's completely selfish, but trying to go about it in the least selfish way I know how. I'm trying to surround myself in a family of my own choosing, with you, Ronnie Anne," So That was the other girls name. "Her cousin, and two other friends of my sisters. I know, and you should know, that I'm doing this because I need something. But I can't, and I won't force this on you." He took a deep breath, locking eyes with her, and steadying himself. "So I'm going to ask you three questions. Will you be our friend? Will you be our sister? And will you allow us to court you?"

Whooo, that was… Wow. Certainly unexpected. Almost felt like a punch to the gut, with the force that her breath had left her. She mentally shook herself, and forced herself to answer him.

"Okay, well… To answer you're questions in order: Sure, I'd love to be better friends with you, and I'm cool with becoming friends with your girlfriend; you can never have too many friends. I'm not going to say no to the possibility that we may become as close as siblings in the future. And to answer your last question, Uuuuuuh…" She faded out without actually saying anything.

"Well, that's better than a no." She heard him mutter quietly.

An uncomfortable silence stretched between them. Lincoln and the other girl fidgeting in place, while Sam stared hazily into the blue sky, gathering her thoughts. A knot formed inside her, a unknowable tightness. The clouds passed overhead gently… They looked nice today.

"I'm going to be completely honest with you." She finally said, "I don't want to turn you down just because. I've always prided myself on giving everything a shot before I decided what I thought about it." Lincoln perked up, looking at her hopefully. "So I'm not saying no, but I do have some questions."

"Sure, ask us anything." He was probably just relieved that she hadn't shot the idea down out of hand, but he looked pretty happy to answer any questions she might have. His expression beaming.

"How many other people are you planning to include in this?" It was an easy place to start. Not an incredibly important question, but a good way to wade into the more serious ones.

"Other than you, me and Ronnie Anne?" He looked up in thought. "Three people."

"How, uh, how is this going to work?"

"Well…" He kicked the dirt at his feet. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, is this just going to be a harem for you? Are you going to collect multiple girls and demand that they all remain faithful to you?" She hadn't meant to make the question sound so harsh, but this was something she needed to know before she decided.

"No!" He looked into her eyes pleadingly. "I would never do that…" Taking a few calming breaths, he calmed down. "I… I don't Want a harem. I don't Want a group of girls who are tied to me and me alone. I Won't hold you down. I know what I'm asking you, and I won't demand that you…" He looked down. "In my dreams, I… I want to start a family of my very own. I want you to be there, and Ronnie Anne, and Carlota, Haiku, and Carol. In my dreams you're all as good friends with each other as you are with me. In my dreams, I love each of you unconditionally, and you all love me the same way. In my dreams, I don't hold you down. If you want to leave me, or start seeing someone else, I just hope that you have enough room in your heart for both of us." He kicked a rock, sending it skittering across the grass. "It's stupid, but that's all I've ever wanted…"

Watching him silently, Sam sighed, picking up her guitar and strumming a few notes while she thought. Letting the cool air fill her lungs slowly, she breathed out through her nose. He'd answered almost every question she had, but she still had one more.

"Alright… Can we start slow?" This was important. "I need you to let me set the speed that we all go through this. Otherwise, I don't think I could commit." That had always been a problem for her. Committing. It felt too much like being trapped, but this… Maybe she'd be okay.

"Yeah, sure." He nodded happily. "We can just be friends for as long as you want."

"Alright, cool…" She patted the bench beside her, waiting until they'd both crossed the distance to take seats. Sitting with a gap between them and her, Sam couldn't help but relax ever so slightly. "Listen to this song I've been working on, and tell me what you think."

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Chapter notes:

Chapters a bit short, but I hope Sam's inclusion was believable.


	5. Chapter 5

Hello chapter three. How are you doing today? Also, happy birthday, because you didn't exist before now.

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"Alright, so what's this place supposed to be?" Sam tilted her head to look at her two companions. "An arcade right? I've never been that good at video games."

Except guitar hero. It wasn't really the same thing as playing a real guitar, and it was a bit too binding for her tastes, but the music was fun to listen to. She didn't like that the game forced you to play exactly what it told you to play. No room for improvising, or playing your own songs. She kicked a rock down the sidewalk. It skittered forward five, or so, feet, and rolled to the side in front of Lincoln.

"Yeah, but this place has something cool." Lincoln sent the rock forward again. "Ronnie showed it to me a while ago, and I thought you'd like it."

"Some kind of flight simulator, or something?" She speculated, even as she caught Ronnie shooting her a glance from the corner of her eye.

She thought they'd picked up by now, her love of all things flexible. Not physically. As she'd said before, video games weren't really her thing, but she liked the idea of flying. From what she'd seen in movies, the controls were pretty complicated. She also felt like all the rules she'd have to follow while up there would chafe against her. She kicked the rock again as she came up on it, drifting a little closer to the other two. A flight simulator wouldn't have all the rules though. She could crash the thing into the side of a mountain, if she wanted to. She didn't want to, but she could.

"No, It's like…" Lincoln trailed off, visibly struggling to find the right words. "Have you ever played one of those dancing games?"

"With the dance pads?" She clarified. "Arrows come down from the top of the screen, and you have to dance in time with it?"

She'd never liked those games.

"Yeah." He nodded, walking ahead a little and turning to face her, walking backwards while he talked. "It's a little bit like those, but it's also a timing based adventure and fighting game." Ronnie tugged his arm, guiding him around a bench he almost tripped over. "Thanks." He nodded to the darker skinned girl, before turning back to Sam. "It's hard to explain. That's the best I can come up with."

Even with that, she wasn't sure she knew what he was talking about. It sounded interesting anyway.

"It's like you're exploring a dungeon, but you can only move and fight by dancing." Ronnie Anne cut into the conversation. "You'll probably like it." She used her hold of Lincoln's arm to stop him. "We're here anyway. You can see for yourself."

They'd stopped in front of a store. The front wall was mostly taken up by a huge window, and Sam could see the lights flashing inside. As she'd said, video games weren't really her thing. Neither were dancing games… Or Twister, for that matter, but her dudes were pretty cool. She was willing to take their word for it here. Ronnie pulled the door open, and let them through first, marching in behind them and letting the door swing shut. Stopping on the other side, she glanced around at everything.

"Alright, it's over here. Come on" Ronnie waved over to the side, trying to turn her attention.

"Yeah, yeah…" Sam shook her head, turning away from the other two. "I'll find you two in a minute… I want to look around a bit first."

"Alright. We'll be waiting for you." Lincoln replied. "Let us know if you decide that you want to do something else."

Sam nodded her head and waved at them over her shoulder, even as she walked away, further into the arcade. She appreciated it, really. Lincoln understood her better than Ronnie Anne did. In the weeks since they started doing this. It felt nice to have someone like him. Who'd do his level best to truly get to know her. She weaved around people, and stopped beside a racing game. The prop bike standing up in front of the screen. She watched the demo for a bit, and turned away. Speed was nice, but it didn't really mean anything if you had nowhere to go. She tread away, searching through the game cabinets for something that would really catch her attention. A fighting game drew her focus. The colorful characters beating the tar out of each other on screen. She shook her head and looked away though. Sometimes you needed to fight. It was a useful skill. She could even imagine it being fun. This wasn't really the same thing though… She probably wasn't going to find a game that she wanted to play more than the one they wanted to show her. She knew this the moment they'd stepped into the arcade. That wasn't really the point though. It was just nice to have the choice in the first place.

Ronnie Anne was a pretty cool dude, and Sam believed that they could become really good friends over time… But she didn't get it. Not really.

Lincoln though… The thing that drew her to him most strongly, in this time they'd spent together, was that he didn't try to hold on to her. He was there, if she needed him. He always felt close; but his presence wasn't binding. Supportive, without trapping her. She didn't know. She hadn't been with them long enough to actually decide, but she felt like she could stay… If she wanted to. It was nice.

She took one last cursory sweep of the arcade, just in case she'd missed something, and turned to search for her dudes.

 **It's been a while since I last worked on this story. I've been doing other things.**

Her legs trembled as she stepped off the pad. A momentary weakness almost causing them to buckle underneath her, but she steadied herself with her hand on Lincoln's shoulder, and stood up straight again. Salty sweat running down the sides of her face, and stinging the corners of her eyes. Heated breath filled her lungs, as she heaved in and out.

Whooo. That game was fun. She didn't want to stop, and she wouldn't have, except that she was too tired to dance anymore. She'd admit that when her dudes first told her about the game, she thought she'd get bored pretty fast, but she was happy to have been proven wrong. She'd have to come back here with them sometime. Maybe they could invite Luna along. She'd probably get a kick out of it too. Plus, they hadn't spent so much time together in the last few weeks. Sam being too busy getting to know her dudes. Hopefully Luna wasn't too rankled about it.

Catching her breath, she stood upright, but didn't take her hand from her loose hold of Lincoln's shoulder. Her throat still felt a little raw, and there was a metallic taste on the tip of her tongue. Her muscles ached, though is a good way. A faint burbling came from her stomach to top it off.

"Hungry?" He asked, tilting his head away from watching Ronnie move to look at her.

"Ah, yeah. Looks like." Her stomach rumbled again. All that dancing was tiring.

"Well you want to wait for Ronnie to be done, and then get something from the cafe, or…" He nodded back out towards the street.

"Hmm" She placed her hand on her dude's opposite shoulder, and allowed herself to drape more of her weight on him as she considered her options.

The cafe was closer, true, and it probably had more options, but she didn't really feel like sitting indoors right now… They could go out and get street food, but they'd be stuck with whatever they found… They'd also be outside though. They could sit down and eat wherever they wanted to. Which was more important to her at the moment? Food options, or freedom to move about wherever?

"Let's get some street food." She decided. "As drained as I am, I want to go outside. I've spent enough time indoors for one day."

"Okay, that's cool. Ronnie should be done in a bit. You want to wait here with me, or look around outside until we come find you?"

"I'll wait." She felt the corners of her lips twitch upwards a little bit more. "She won't take that long, and besides." She allowed herself to become deadweight, hanging off her dude's shoulders. "My feet are dead. I'll never be able to walk again. You'll have to carry me."

She was careful to pay attention in case he started falling over from her weight. She was four years older, and a lot bigger, than him, after all. She was a little surprised, and impressed, when he didn't seem to struggle too much under her. She supposed she should have expected it though. He lived in a house with ten sisters, five of them younger than him. He had to be used to being used like a living jungle-gym.

"Oh well, in that case we might have to pick you up one of those wheelie office chairs to push around from now on." She could see his lips curling up playfully.

"Not even an actual wheel chair?" She huffed. "I've seen people spin around on those things like they're breakdancing."

"Nah, too expensive." He shrugged. "Until then though, I'm happy to carry around my cute sssssssss" He drew out the s, waiting for her to indicate that she wasn't ready to be called that yet. "Sssister." He finished when she didn't contradict him."

And she liked that about him. A spark of fondness shooting through her. He'd been slowly edging towards calling her that since they started all this, but he waited for her to give the final okay before he actually started doing it. Sam wasn't sure she thought of him as a brother yet, but she could definitely see herself feeling that way in the future.

"I suppose I can't argue with that." She looked over when Ronnie stepped off the dance pad began making her way over to them, waving a tired hello. "Okay brother. Carry me onward than."

She wasn't really sure what she expected him to do. He'd been pretty tolerant of her hanging off him so far, but he was a pretty chill dude. Though tolerating being weighed down wasn't the same thing as putting in the effort to carry someone, so she was amused, and kinda surprised when he crouched down, shifted her further up his back, wrapped his arms under her thighs, and stood up. He did a good job of it too. Made sure she was as comfortable as she was going to get, and barely wobbled as her stood. She sort of didn't think he'd get very far like this though.

"Hey guys, what're we doing?" Ronnie raised an eyebrow at them.

"Sam and I were waiting for your to finish so we could all go outside and get something to eat." Lincoln shifted her on his back.

"Oh but…" Ronnie turned to look at the cafe in confusion.

"Yeah, but I thought it would be nice to get some fresh air. Can you put me down Lincoln?" She'd been spending too much time with Luna to be having this thought, but she didn't fancy being dropped on the ground when Lincoln's strength failed.

She also didn't fancy crushing him underneath her. She felt her toes touch the ground, as Lincoln carefully lowered her, and she stood up under her own power. Still sort of hanging on to him though. Just because she didn't want them to collapse into a pile of limbs, didn't mean she wanted to let go of him completely.

"Okay, that's cool…" Ronnie trailed off as she seemed to think of something. "Oh hey. There's a really great mural around here. I can show it to you guys while we eat."

A short trek later Sam found herself sitting on a bench, her dudes beside her, looking up at this huge picture that was painted on the side of a building. It looked like the first panel of some kind of story. The next building over had the next one, and the one after that had the third. The fourth one wasn't done yet. It was interesting. She wasn't much of a painter herself, but she sort of admired those who were… Well… Not really. She had music after all. She wouldn't trade her ability to create songs, for the ability to paint. Still though…

"What do you guys think of approaching Haiku soon?" She was broken from her thoughts by Lincoln's question.

Sam turned to look at him. He looked a little embarrassed under her and Ronnie's stare.

"Well…" Ronnie glanced away.

"I don't. I don't want to rush this…" He looked apologetic. "I just though… I just just thought that things have been going really well, so…" He trailed off "Sorry." He finally muttered.

Sam didn't like seeing him like this. She could tell that Ronnie Anne didn't either. She wasn't sure if she was ready to say she was dating them yet, but… She liked them. She knew that much. She also wanted them to be happy.

"I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet, but…" She sighed. She Really did want him to be happy. "Can we just do this? Can we just hang out for another month? I just need a little bit more time, then we can talk to Haiku. I promise." That really didn't feel good. The promise… It created a ball of dread in the pit of her stomach.

"Yeah, we can do that." Lincoln answered. "And thanks." The radiant smile on his face though. That Did feel good.

She didn't like to promise things. Felt like she was trapping herself with her own words. The feeling of the curling mass of anxiety dissolving in the face of his happiness though. Maybe she could do this. She felt like she could do this.

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Chapter notes:

Writing for Sam might actually be harder than writing for Luna. It took me a while to work out her voice. Because she's similar to Luna, yes, but I wanted her to be her own distinct person too. Rather than her being a clone of Luna, I wanted her to be clearly different. Just of the same basic temperament. That's what I'm trying to do for all the girls though.

When I was trying to think of something that Sam, Lincoln, and Ronnie Anne could do on a date together, I remembered the arcade from Ronnie Anne's chapter. Specifically, the Crypt of the Necrodancer. I thought that a musically based video game would bridge the gap in interest between the three. I didn't go with a Guitar Hero type game, because Sam would have hated that. Though, I also think they would have had fun just running around in the park together.

Man, it took me like… Actually, literally, a month to complete this chapter… Well, whatever. I'm just happy to have gotten it done.


	6. Chapter 6

This is the first line of the chapter. I hope it was as thrilling for you to read it, as it was for me to write it.

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The fine, but irregular, pull of her sheets ran across the skin of her shoulder as she turned over in her bed. Pills of fabric rolling across the surface, before reaching the edge of her nightdress, where the sensation stopped. Instead transforming into the feel of felty smooth white cloth rustling as it wrinkled with her movement.

Some fabric around her arm grew tight and pressed firmly against the expanse of her skin, as Haiku rolled onto her back and sat up. Rubbing her knuckles into her closed eyes, she let out a breath, and slid out of bed to start her day.

Padding across her wooly rug, the individual fibers scratching along the soles of her bare feet, as she crossed to her dressed. The tips of her figures found the tacky, cool, and smooth surface of a paper swan's wing. Looking over her creations with a certain level of fondness. This was something she'd made. A swan, a rose, a little frog, an imperious crane looking down at the rest as though it any power. She chuckled… As though she had any more ability.

The rough and knotted wood dug into her palms, as she pulled open her dresser drawer. Lifting a soft and corse pair of elastic panties, to go with her first training bra. She crossed to her closet, the hard plastic clacking against her nails as she slid open the door. With the skill of practice, she ignored the box in the back, and set her gaze across her choices. A dark red was a classic, but she had other colors too. She always wore dark red. Would the others notice if she wore it again? Would they think less of her? Would they notice that she had no…

But what if she wore a dark blue, or green? Blues and greens were the color of plants and the sky. Were they too cheerful? Would she disappoint the them? Would Lucy tell her she was dressed inappropriately?

Black was a safe color, but… Haiku didn't like black…

She'd go with a dark blue. Blue was the sky, but the sky could be dark. That's what night was. They weren't going to cast her out for dressing like the night…

She snatched the silky garb from its hanger, and tread to her bathroom. The rough threads of the rug transforming into the cold and unyielding slap of pile against her feet. Her nightdress slipped from her frame. the ruffles rolling down her body until they pooled at her feet, where she left it. The contrast of tile on one side and felt on the other was… She liked it. Taking a moment to thoroughly appreciate the sensation.

She let the moment go. Twisting the cool metal knob to start the water. As the bumpy shape pushed into her hand in random spots, creating an almost uncomfortable, but thoroughly interesting feeling, she lifted her other hand to catch the rain of water. They were chilling. Sinking past her skin and numbing her bones. She turned the knob further, because she couldn't feel enough. The water warming gradually. Pins and needles shifting around under the surface… Like that, but without the pain… It faded though, as the drops beat down on her palm. Warmth suffusing her muscles and joints. She twisted the knob a little further and stepped in.

She felt the water pound down on her. Individual drops splashing against her skin in rapid fire, and breaking in every direction to form a fine mist that floated ethereally. It ran rivers of warmth down her body and through her hair. Her hair heavy and sticking to her skin. Separate strands pulling away and obscuring her vision, or tickling her nose.

Her hands moved mechanically without her visual aid. Feeling around the stall to do what needed to be done, as she tried not to let her mind wander… Or at least tried to control where it went. What would she pack for lunch today? Pretzels came to mind instantly. She liked the crunch. Maybe a grapefruit. Bitter, but that could be fixed by simply sprinkling a bit of salt over the surface. She'd sit with Elizabeth today, because Lucy would just ask her about her poem, and she didn't want to talk about that.

It wasn't… She wasn't… How were you supposed to write poems about darkness nonstop? It felt like… Like her friends had to be happy right? They wouldn't want to talk about depression, and loneliness, and death so much is they didn't like it right? Who would want to talk about things that they didn't like? And the ironic thing was that they talked about how alone they were but they had friends! They weren't alone. They had talents and skills that were amazing, and made people Want to be friends with them. They talked about entropy and how worthless everything was, but it was easy for them to say! They were so good at it. They were so good at everything they put their minds to… So they couldn't possibly actually believe what they said they did. They were just having fun…

Sometimes Haiku wished she knew what they saw in it all. Was there a secret code or something that she was missing?

Her lungs expanded as she breathed in deeply. She could feel the air rippling across the inside of her throat as she breathed out, and she let it go. Those thoughts that just made everything worse.

She didn't want to think badly of her friends. If not for them she'd have nobody, so she couldn't allow herself to resent them, no matter how good they had it. She didn't want to lose them, so she'd think about something else.

Her parents had some big event coming up… No… That wasn't something she should be thinking about either.

She twisted the knob and shut off the water. A sudden chill replacing the rolling warmth as the air, that was previously kept at bay, attacked her on all sides. Quivering shivers ran up and down her spine. Resonating down into her limbs as she stepped back onto the tile. A shaggy towel gathered and wrapped, to wick away the water and the cold.

She took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Her worries and her anxieties flowing out with it… She wished.

She finished off with a quick rub down to get any moisture she might have missed, and slipped into her carefully chosen outfit for the day. Stepping from her pleasantly, and immaculately, white room to the color splashed halls of the rest of her home.

Mu sauntered up to her. Winding his body between and around her legs, purring contently, and she picked him up. Burying her face in the silken fibers of his fur, as she took the opportunity to focus on him to the exclusion of all else. His gentle purring soothed her, and she placed him back down.

She wondered, as she wandered down the hall, carefully avoiding looking at the monuments to her parents artistic skill that covered the walls, whether the others would accept a poem about night time. It wasn't quite the darkness, but it was related. It also felt like something she might be able to write about. She'd just have to make sure her words didn't sound too cheerful. Shouldn't be too hard.

Maybe that's why they chose to hang out with her. They seemed to relish in misery, so they'd jumped at the chance to bask in the wells of it that radiated off her… Or… Somethings it felt like that… Would make sense though. That they'd want her for that. Not for unique characteristic of being worthless, but because of the melancholy that wafted off her, due to her awareness of that fact.

She shook herself. Finding herself slowly chewing her way through a cereal bar, on her way out the door. She didn't know what was wrong with her. She wasn't usually this bad… Besides, she shouldn't think that about her friends. She'd already chastised herself earlier. Her friends weren't like that…

She needed to think about something else.

A haiku about nighttime than. She had a bit of time until she got to school. What did she want to say about the night? She'd learned through trial and error that being too vague when writing was a pitfall in it's own right. Something about the stars maybe? Even more than that though… Something melancholy. She didn't think they'd like it if she accept a happier poem…

Longing for star light.

Maybe she could write about a general sense of longing for the stars… An escape, she guessed, to somewhere else. A wish that looking at them would allow her to navigate through troubles in her life, in the same way that sailors used to used them to navigate while traveling.

She didn't know… The hardest part of writing these poems was coming up with something to write about.

The bus rumbled to a stop, and she joined the throng of kids leaving through the folding door, and moving towards the school. The bell was about to ring, but nobody moved to go in yet, instead choosing to disperse into their friend groups for the last few minutes until they absolutely had to start their scholastic day.

Haiku, like always, found herself hovering at the edges of the crowd. It was where all the outcasts, and people who thought of themselves as outcasts, hung out. She didn't know which one she was anymore.

Back in her days of baggy, loose fitting, and beige colored sweaters, she would have firmly placed herself as an actual outcast. After all, who would want to spend time with her? The weird girl, with the weird name, who never talked to anybody, and didn't seem to like anything?

These days though… She looked, to all who gave her a cursory glance, to be a part of the gothic clique. That's where her friends were. She had fears though, that if someone examined her too close, they'd notice the cracks in her facade. What would her friends do if they found out? Would they reject her like so much trash? Or would they merely continue to put up with her in silence, as a chilly chasm of indifference opened up and slowly widened until they calmly told her that they didn't want to be friends anymore? And what if someone outside the clique found out and told her friends? The thought was terrifying.

Still, she allowed herself to hover on the edges of the gothic clique, Ostensibly a part of it, but separate enough for her own comfort. Then the bell rang, and everyone stopped what they were doing to flood into the building.

 **This is the first Pseudo Incest chapter, in a while, that makes use of segment separators. It's a landmark event. Everyone pull out the balloons and streamers.**

"Sailors used to think that is was the acids in lemons that prevented scurvy."

Haiku wasn't really paying attention to what her teacher was saying… She was sure it was interesting, but her mind kept wandering. Drifting from subject to subject, but most often straying towards the matter of her still unfinished poem.

"So eventually they replaced lemons with limes, because limes are more acidic. Of course it didn't help, because the real cause of scurvy-"

And then the bell rang.

"Hmm… I seem to have lost track of time. Well it's lunch time students. Off you pop."

As the masses behind her rummaged about, gathering up their bags and books in preparation for funneling through the door, Haiku left herself. An advantage of sitting so close to the exit, and keeping her work organized. She was able to leave before a real crowd formed. She didn't like crowds. All that shoving and pushing. It was… The unexpected, and unasked for, pressure was thoroughly unpleasant.

Though she supposed the other options was to wait until everyone was already out the door. but some habits died hard.

She paced quickly down the hall, attempting to reach the cafeteria before the hallways were flooded with similarly destined students of all shapes and sizes. On all sides, students were beginning to trickle from classroom, and she passed without closer examination. On their part, or hers, for which she was thankful.

She didn't like it when people looked at her too closely.

The double doors of the cafeteria loomed before her, and she pushed her way through. The chilling metal, and rough plastic, giving way before her, as she shoved the push bar in. It created a satisfying and physical kuchunk, followed by a lack of resistance, as the portal swung open and admitted her entrance to the larger room beyond.

With almost nobody there yet, She was suddenly hit by the downside of sticking to habit, and leaving the classroom before everyone else. Nobody was here, so she'd have to sit at their table first, or stand around awkwardly drawing attention… A shiver of dread coursed through her at the thought. She wouldn't be able to choose who she was going to sit next to. Not without getting up from her spot and moving after everyone else already sat down, and that wasn't an option.

Anxiety stiffened her legs, as she uneasily made her way to the table of the gothic clique. Made you think though… Or maybe it didn't. That all the cliques sat at their own tables. Always at the same table. You'd think that exactly where they sat wouldn't matter so much. But it was the familiarity that did it. Sitting somewhere else just felt wrong. It meant that there were more cliques than those that were clearly defined by arch-type, because any group of people who always sat together was their own clique… Even if they didn't have a defined banner that they all rallied under… Maybe she only noticed because she used to be an outsider… Or maybe she was just trying to distract herself from what she knew was yet to come.

Hey look at that. She was at the table. Time to pick a spot at random, and hope Lucy didn't deign to sit beside her.

She flipped her legs over the bench and scooted forward, inching closer the the edge of the table. The surface was tacky… Like almost sticky, but not quite. That she was used to, and she came prepared. A short stack of napkins coming from her backpack to be spread evenly across her eating surface. Germs weren't an issue here. The feel of the table was just gross. She unzipped another pocket on her backpack and retrieved a brown paper bag, containing her lunch. The paper crinkling as is bent and folded in her grasp. It was smooth. She liked it.

The little wilting saw teeth at the top tickling across the back of her hand and her palm as she reached into the depth and seized up a plastic freezer bag filled with the two halves of a cut grapefruit. Her hands quickly dove back in to procure a few packets of salt, and several large pretzel sticks, wrapped together in plastic wrap. Followed, lastly, by a bottle of a homemade mango yogurt drink.

She unwrapped the pretzels. The rubbery pull of plastic wanting to stick to itself, even as she unwound it, and shoved the resulting ball back into the paper bag. She unsealed the freezer bag, and reached in for the damp fruit halves held within. Once again scrunching the baggy into a ball and stashing it back in the paper bag. She tore open the tops of the salt packets and carefully sprinkled the crystals over the surface of the fruit, before pulling out a spoon. Not a grapefruit spoon though. Those had serrated edges and that was too much like a knife for the school to allow. Though she wondered how much more effort it would take to sharpen the plastic cutlery that the school provided into a dangerous edge, and it would be to do the same to a grapefruit spoon…

"Haiku."

She sucked in a breath through her nose, and straightened her spine in lieu of jumping out of her seat, when Lucy appeared next to her. Hopefully the younger girl hadn't noticed.

She'd known the other girl for years, and tried to emulate her style, but she'd never been able to do that thing Lucy did where she just showed up out of nowhere. She was always surprised by it… Probably a consequence of spending so much time inside her own head.

"Lucy…" She found herself muttering back, hoping that was where the exchange would end.

"You ready for tonight's poetry reading?" But of course it didn't.

"I…" She looked about, seeing the mildly attentive looks of those who didn't care to pretend that they weren't interested, the slight cocking of the head of those who liked to pretend they weren't, and the explicit dismissal of those who she imagined had already come to know how little they should expect from her. Thick mercury coursed through her veins. Weighing her down and filling her brain. Her throat contracted, and felt tears gathering behind her eyes, but she mastered herself and responded as best she was able. "My minds eye has been cloudy these last few days. I'm sure it'll pass."

"Hmm…" Lucy's lips pursed, and Haiku held her breath in anticipation of her verdict. "It happens to the best of us."

Haiku flinched internally at the stinging admonishment, because she wasn't the best, was she, and Lucy knew that. But she'd been given another chance… She'd make sure not to mess it up.

 **I wonder if I'm getting the correct impression of Haiku's character across. Tell me in the comments what you thought of her.**

Haiku sat in the back of the room, near the door; watching as her friends each took their turn on stage, even as nothing they said penetrated the fog surrounding her thoughts.

Before her, her hands and digits carefully bent white paper over itself again and again. The tips of her fingers brushing across the smooth surface. She folded it, twisting it back on itself. The one thing she was good at really. It was calming. A paper rose slowly taking shape in her grasp.

A white rose. Her favorite kind.

"Haiku" She crushed the flower between her hands in an instant, and turned to Lucy.

It didn't matter. It was dumb. Lucy wouldn't want to see it anyway. It'd just be a waste of her time. She carefully crushed the remains into the palm of one and and slipped it into her backpack.

"Yes?"

"My brother's outside, with a friend of his and a friend of my sister's" Haiku could feel Lucy's stare boring into her, and resisted the urge to shrink into herself.

"I… Okay?"

"They're asking for you."

"Why?" Who would want to talk to her?

"I don't know. I just came to tell you." She turned away and padded further into the shadows, disappearing from Haiku's awareness as quickly as she'd come.

Pushing herself back from her seat, she decided to take the excuse to leave early and save herself from further judging glances, so she grasped the shoulder strap of her backpack and carried it with her. All the while wondering, what could Lincoln and his friends want with her? The last time she saw him was when Lucy set them up to go to a school dance together, and Haiku got the feeling that he wasn't having fun spending time with her. She couldn't blame him really… Still… She didn't understand why he'd want to talk to her now.

She moved through the empty school hallways, until she found the front doors to the school and pushed them open to find Lincoln and two other girls standing around on the front lawn. The first girl Haiku recognized. Ronnie Anne. She'd never spoken to the girl, but she remembered that the hispanic girl used to go to school with them… She'd moved away, or something… Haiku wasn't sure.

The other girl was older… Like teenaged, definitely. She wore a sky blue bomber jacket over a white t-shirt, and jeans. Her short blond hair had a streak of red through it, and she had a guitar case thrown across her back

Lincoln waved her over, and Haiku stopped a short distance from them, doing her best to project an apathetic confidence, that she wasn't feeling.

"Hey Haiku, could I ask you a very stupid sounding question?" What? "I'll make more sense after I explain everything, but I found that the best way to do this is to just get out the initial question, and then explain what it means."

"I…" She paused. How best to put this to sound as uninterested as possible. "I can't stop you. Do what you want."

"Would you join our family?" What?

And as he went on to explain, Haiku felt something… Confusion and fear most prominently Why would they want her? Were they planning something? Did they know how fake she was? If they didn't and this was a genuine request, it would mean more expectations she couldn't possibly live up to, right? What did they want from her? What if it was too much? What if she suffocated under the pressure?

Beneath it all she felt something else though. Some emotion that she couldn't identify. It was too small. Too far away. But it was strong. There was no doubt that it was there, and it wasn't bad… She wasn't used to not feeling bad… It was intoxicating… She wanted to reach out and grab it. She wanted to feel more.

So despite all her crushing fears, and swirling confusion… In spite of all of that… She… She wanted to say yes… Was it worth it? She didn't know, but she wanted it to be. That's why, when he asked her if she would join, she said.

"Okay."

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Chapter notes:

It was actually pretty hard to write this chapter. I just slogged through it. If it wasn't apparent, Haiku is supposed to come off as pretty legitimately depressed. It's hard to write from the perspective of depressed people, because depressed people are tired all the time. They aren't interested in anything. They lack motivation to do anything. I had to pull back on that a little bit to even have a chapter at all, so rather than being clinically depressed, she's just not a happy person. It was still pretty hard though.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven, I'm fairly certain. I'll be starting a new story to replace Mirror More, but I have to cycle through my other stories before I get to it. So expect a wait of a week or two before it properly begins.

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"So you ever tried skating?" Haiku could hear Ronnie ask from the branches above her.

"Yeah, but I never really got into it." She could see Sam's legs lazily kicking from another branch just above where she sat at the base of the tree. "I don't know why, I just don't like skates that much… Feels uncomfortable on my feet."

"What about a skate board?"

"Nope, never tried it." A soft tune floated down to Haiku's ears, as Sam plucked gently at the guitar strings. "I've always wanted to, but I've never owned one, and I always had other stuff I wanted to do more."

"You can borrow mine, if you want. We can go to the skate park near my house, and you can try it out."

"That sounds pretty chill."

"Why do you write poems so often if they're hard for you to do?" Lincoln's question startled her and she turned to where he'd been sitting beside her in silence for the last few minutes.

"Well I…" She'd not been expecting him to actually say anything more about the subject, after she told him about her difficulties, and he'd lapsed into contemplative silence.

"I mean, you don't need to find something easy to like it. Sometimes it's fun to try things your not good at. Sometimes it's fun to work past your difficulties until you don't have them anymore. Sometimes it's fun just to challenge yourself." He was rambling a bit, though Haiku didn't understand why. Why he'd act this way around her. "So I'm not saying that you can't like to do things that are challenging for you, I just… I don't know, I guess I'm just curious."

"I…" She hesitated, not sure if she wanted to tell him, but not sure if she wanted to lie, and not sure if she just wanted to stay silent. Would they reject her if they found out that she only started so she could fit in with another group? They seemed like free spirits, and she wanted to fit in, so that meant she should also act like a free spirit too right?

On the other hand they were nice to her, and for some reason she couldn't figure out, they didn't seem to expect anything out of her that she wasn't willing to give. She liked them, so she didn't want to lie to them.

She didn't want to stay silent either though, because that would make her seem weird, but the fact that she couldn't decide was making her silent anyway, and OH GOD SAY SOMETHING!

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I was curious, but I don't want to push you. Tell me whenever you're comfortable." Of course he spoke before she could blurt something out that would probably embarrass her for the rest of her life.

"I… I didn't start until I became friends with Lucy and her friends." His assurance working to calm her nerves somewhat. They hadn't kicked her out yet, so they probably wouldn't if she revealed this much at least. She could tell them the truth without telling them the full story. "I started writing poems so I'd have something to share with them."

"Huh…" He trailed off, looking up in apparent thought again, before he turned his attention back towards her. "Would you say you like it more because it's something you can do with friends? Or do you enjoy it more for what it is?"

"I…" She didn't really know how to answer that.

"I mean." He must have seen the confusion on her face. "Do you like writing poems because writing poems is fun? Or do you like writing poems because it's something you can do with your friends?"

"Why?" Why did he want to know? She… This wasn't what she was used to. It was confusing.

"I'm just… Sorry…" He looked away, and Haiku couldn't help the guilt that welled up inside her at the sight. "I'm being too pushy."

"Hey Lincoln!" They both looked up to Sam, almost laying down on her branch. "Why don't you and Ronnie get us some food from the kitchen. I'm feeling like seaweed chips. I think there are some in the cabinet over the sink."

"Oh, yeah, alright." He pushed himself up from the tree, as Ronnie jumped down, and they both meandered casually towards the front door of Sam's house.

Watching them go, as Ronnie swatted at the back of Lincoln's head and dodged his attempt to retaliate. There was something there. Something that Haiku didn't see in most relationships, though she wasn't sure what it was.

"You know you don't have to force yourself to do this if you don't want to." Her head snapped back around to Sam, who was regarding her with calm eyes.

"I…"

"It's just that… This whole thing is a bit of a crazy idea, I know, but Lincoln really wants it to work. You're not having a good time, and he can tell. Why do you think he keeps trying to talk to you?"

"I don't…" Her jaw worked, but she didn't know what to say.

"If you're not really into this, I'd rather you tell us now. It would save Lincoln a lot of heartbreak later."

A frozen terror gripped her. What did she say? What did she do?!

"I like the color white! It's my favorite because it's all the colors at once, it's bright, and it can be added on to make anything you want." She said before her brain really caught up with her mouth.

AH! That was so stupid! They were going to think she was a complete weirdo!

"Alright…" She snapped her eyes back up to Sam, who looked unaware of her internal freak out. "Tell Lincoln that, when he comes back out."

What? That… That wasn't how that was supposed to go…

"Hey, we're back." Ronnie called to them, as she and Lincoln walked back across the lawn. "I got us all some sparkling apple juice too, just in case." She hefted a pile of juice cans in the hand that wasn't holding the bag of chips.

"I only like writing poems because it's something I can do with my friends." Haiku blurted at them as they stopped at the base of the tree again. "What I really like to do is make origami!"

Lincoln and Ronnie Anne took a step back, their faces surprised, until a glowing smile washed over Lincoln's.

"That's cool. I'd really like to see your work sometime."

That feeling she couldn't identify was back again. The one that wasn't bad. It was stronger this time though.

"I could… You could come over to my house sometime and see, if you want?…"

"That sounds cool." Ronnie handed her a can of juice and one of the two large bags of seaweed chips she'd gotten from them kitchen.

 **This was a pretty awkward section to write. On an unrelated note, the plot of Kingdom Hearts 3 is hot garbage on a stick.**

"This is pretty chill." Sam stooped down to her knees in the corner of Haiku's room. Her gaze sweeping over the small origami animals Haiku made.

"Yeah." Ronnie held a delicate paper flower up to her eyes. "It's not really my thing, but this is really cool Haiku."

"Thank you…" This was all too much. Too much for her to process. She'd never thought…

"I'm glad you told us about this Haiku." Lincoln smiled warmly at her. "You're really good at this. Way better than I think I could be."

"No… That's not true. You could be amazing at this, if you wanted to be."

"Maybe, but I don't think so." He chuckled.

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Chapter notes:

Yeah I had some difficulties with this chapter. Mostly because I was trying to get across that enough time had passed for Haiku to get a bit of a read on them, and decide that she wanted to be a part of their group, but not enough for her to be totally comfortable with them yet. I played around with a few alternate versions of this chapter, where she'd already opened up a little, and was slowly learning to trust them more and more, but that's not really what would happen. Haiku isn't hesitant because she's slow to trust. A situation that would have resulted in something similar to what happened in the prototype chapters. She's hesitant because she doesn't think she has anything to offer. That in mind, it's unlikely that she would open up to them without the threat of them leaving her behind hanging over her. That's what led to the chapter as it currently exists.


	8. Chapter 8

"So, this has been a long time coming, The reason for that is that I'm currently working on a new story. I'm still working on it. It's not done. I just thought that I'd release a chapter of this in order to tide over all my most impatient fans. There will probably be another long pause between this chapter going up and the next time I post though. I'm fifty pages into my new story, and I still have more to go. Please be patient with me.

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She pushed a Tupperware container of leftover spaghetti to the side to look behind it… No, not there either… Where was it? Crouching down to scan the shelves, she opened the produce drawer, even though she knew it wouldn't be in there, because maybe it would be in there? She didn't know what her family did in the fridge. Maybe CJ put it there. It's not like he hadn't done weirder things. Aaannnd… Also no. Hmmm… She stood up leaning back, but using her grip on the fridge handles to keep herself from falling over backwards. Looking to the top shelf, at the milk and orange juice. She pushed the OJ against the wall, and YES! Pudding!

Satisfaction flowed through her, as she pulled the sacred pudding cup from the cold box, and pealed back the top. She scooped a happy spoonful of tapioca pearl packed goodness into her mouth and savored the flavors that exploded like fireworks on her tongue. Mmmm, oh god. It was so good, she closed her eyes and hummed her appreciation. Better than sex.

With renewed energy, she shut the door to the fridge and bounced from the kitchen. Coming into the hall, just as Ronnie Anne was coming up the stairs. The younger girl had a smile on her face, and the way her eyes just scanned past Carlota told the girl that her younger cousin was on autopilot.

The corners of Carlota's lips curled up around the spoon in her mouth, as a thought occurred to her, and with deliberately silent steps she crept towards her unsuspecting cousin. The carpet tickling the bottoms of her feet as she slunk towards the younger girl, sending a pleasant tingling sensation through her, until-

"Hey little Anne!" A snicker forcing its way past her lips when the younger girl jumped in surprise. You usually couldn't get Ronnie like that, so moments like this were perfect.

"Ah!" Ronnie swung around. "Oh god." The girl heaved for breath for a second, but calmed down quickly. "Carlota." She nodded, her face smoothing over into her typical carefully crafted smirk.

A brief twang of regret pinched at the back of her mind at breaking her cousin from her good mood. She scrapped the thought though. It just meant that she'd have to work to make the girl honest again.

"You seem happy." She sang. Her hands on her hips, careful not to crush the pudding cup against her dress as she bowed forward to bring her face almost level with Ronnie's. "Any particular reason for that?"

"Oh?" The shorter girl pretended to think for a moment. "No, I don't think so. Maybe I'm just in a good mood today."

Amusement sparked through her with an electric zing. Did Ronnie Anne really think she was fooled? She knew what she saw and no amount of misdirection was going to make her think otherwise.

"Hmm? Really?" She could act like she believed her for a moment though. "Are you sure you didn't see any new murals around town? No new skate shops or arcades opened up?"

"No." The girls freckled face didn't even twitch, so it wasn't that.

"Maybe it's a boy?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." She answered too quickly for it to be anything but.

"Oh?" She stood straight again, taking and savoring another delicious bite of pudding as she considered the girl before her. "So it Is a boy." The younger girls expression became flat. "Hmm… Is it Lincoln?"

Ronnie stood motionless for a second, just staring at her, and Carlota couldn't help but wonder if she'd pushed too far. If Little Anne was going to shut her out and leave. "Yes." She finally, and surprisingly, answered.

Huh… Somehow that didn't feel right. Ronnie Anne usually didn't give up like that. Still, no use worrying about these things. Until she knew more, it's not like she could do anything about it, and it might be a good thing anyway. Maybe Ronnie Anne was learning to open up a little. Maybe getting together with Lincoln was that extra little push she needed. It was a nice thought, and hopefully true.

"And how are things going with him?" Her lips spread apart, as a new grin formed.

"I… Uh…" Ronnie struggled to form her words. "We…" She looked to the side, hesitant. Then she looked back up at her, and her expression firmed. "Lincoln asked for my help in forming something like a harem, but only kind of. And that's what we've been doing for the past few months."

What?

"What?" Error messages flashed through her mind, as she struggled to understand what Ronnie Anne had just said to her… What!?

"A while ago Lincoln asked me to help him form something that he called a family." Words spilled out of Little Anne's mouth faster and faster, even as Carlota struggled to keep up with the never ending flow. "And I mean, I don't know if I would call it that really, but it's not really a harem either, because those aren't so much about forming healthy relationships, as they are about one guy having as many girls as possible, and this isn't that. I don't think I can explain it as well as Lincoln did, because I don't even know what he's talking about half the time, but I can tell that he really needs this for more than just personal gratification." She paused and took a heaving breath. "But basically, I think he's trying to form a group of friends that he can be really close to. Like as close as he is with me, because I think he was actually really lonely before. Which is crazy because he grew up with ten sisters, right? But I don't think they can, or are willing to, give him the type of friendship he needs, so he's trying to make those friendships elsewhere." She took another deep breath and kept going. "And I don't really know what's going on, and everything is so confusing, but it also kind of feels nice? Like I don't think I've had any friends like that before, except Lincoln, and I don't need that kind of relationship to be happy, but it doesn't hurt, right?" Sucking in another breath to fill her empty lungs she plowed forward. "And we were going to ask you to join us, but we didn't know how to ask, but you asked me first, and I thought I'd just go for it…" She blew out whatever breath was left in her lungs. Her gaze steady, as she held Carlota's eyes with her own. "So, will you?"

"I… Uh…"

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This chapter was pretty short. The next one, still from Carlota's point of view, will be longer. But it probably won't be for a while, as I'm pretty set on finishing the first chapter on my new story before I do anything else… Though I may have to break what I have into multiple chapters, as I don't know if ffdotnet with let me upload fifty, plus, pages into one chapter.

God, you guys better appreciate this. The first couple times I tried to post this chapter, gross programming language garbage bookended Every Single Line. I tried to fix it and failed. So this is my last attempt. I'm just going through the chapter and deleting everything that's not supposed to be there. I sincerely hope that doesn't happen when I try to post my new story, That would suck monkey nuts through a straw.


	9. Chapter 9

This is a chapter for a story. I have nothing to say, so I've decided to be factually accurate. The sky is blue because when the light of the sun reaches the earth, most of the colors are scattered across the atmosphere. Blue is one of the only ones that reach your eyes. It's also why the sky is orange, and red, when the sun is setting, or rising. Same reason. It's just that the increased angle means that the light has to go through even more air to reach your eyes. It's enough for the blue to scatter, and for orange, and red, to reach your eyes instead.

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The fresh air cooling her throat, and filling her lungs, was different from the air that she breathed in the city. She supposed that should be obvious though. Something about how there wasn't as much pollution in the air. Carlota slowly sucked in a breath, savoring the crisp flavor.

Her eyes trailed over the trees racing past them, before she looked forward. Ah, crap. She was falling behind. Leaning over the handle bars, Carlota stood from her seat and began peddling faster, to pull up with everyone else.

Falling back into her seat, sucked in an extra deep breath. Heaving for a few moments because, god! She needed to exercise more.

She'd been ignoring it well up to this point, but there was only so much she could take before she just couldn't, and she'd reached that point. She was sweaty, and grimy, and she could feel her dress clinging to her armpits, and chest. She honestly felt like she was dying. It was really bad. How did Ronnie Anne, and the others do this?

"Hey, you okay?" She heard Little Anne ask her, over the sound of the wind rushing by, and the huffing and puffing of her own breath.

Looking up from where she'd been resting her forehead against the handle bar, she saw the others all looked at her with varying degrees of concern, or indifference… Or maybe badly expressed concern. Carlota couldn't really read Haiku very well. Her blank stare could mean anything really.

"Uh-huh… Yeah." She wheezed. "I'm uh… Hey, can we rest soon?"

"Oh, yeah. There's a rest stop up the trail a bit more." As she was turning to look at Sam, a salty bead of sweat was swept into her eye by the passing winds, and she closed it reflexively against the sting. "We can stop there."

"A-alight." She heaved, looking ahead through her one open eye. Her mouth tasted like pennies.

"No, but really." She could hear the worry in her cousin's voice. "Are you actually okay?"

"I…" She gulped breaths. "I… I Can't. Don't talk to me!" With an explosive level of effort, she straightened, and held a hand out to Ronnie, so she wouldn't interrupt. "I'm concentrating."

Wrapping her fingers back around bars, she gripped with one hand, and balled the other to kneed the sweat out of her eye. Dropping it to the other handle, and solidifying her hold, she focused steadily forward. Pumping her legs on the peddles, she ignored everything but her efforts to not fall over, and her efforts to reach that rest stop before she fell over. Because that was it, baby! She was either reaching that rest stop, or she was going to die trying! FORWARD!

The pumping of her legs brought her bike to the head of the pack, and with a grunt of effort she pushed herself back up from her seat. Leaning over the handle bar and pushing her face into the oncoming winds, as they whipped by and wicked away the sweat. Her legs burned, and her throat hurt, and her mouth tasted like metal, but she was going to get to that rest stop if it was the. Last. Thing. She. Did! AAHHHRGH! The grass and trees blurred on either side, and… THERE!

Slowing as best as she could, Carlota struggled not to crash straight into the picnic tables, even as she struggled not to simply fall off her bike, and honestly? It was too much. Resigning herself to the less painful of the two experiences, she let the front of the bike ram into the table, shifting it with a sudden screech of the metal table legs against the pavement. The stop was too much. She was already standing up from her seat. With a jolt that took her breath away, she found herself launched over the bars, and onto the surface of the table.

A-ha-ha, oh god. Sweet Jesus. The wood textured plastic of the table was rough against her skin. It didn't feel good, but she didn't feel good either, so they were even. At least the shade kept the sun from heating the plastic enough to bake her skin. That was a saving grace.

The sound of the playing card, in Lincoln's wheel, caught her attention, as she continued to lay there. She was too tired to move. Besides, she was pretty sure her face had melted into the surface of the table.

"You okay Lota?" She could hear the concern in Ronnie's voice again.

Rolling onto her side, and then her back, she lifted her hand into the air, and just about managed a thumbs up.

"You sure?"

"I'm uh." She closed her eyes against the glare filtering through the trees. "Can we go slower for the next half of the trail?"

"Oh yeah, that's." Lincoln cut himself off. "That's fine right?" She didn't know why he was asking.

"Yeah, I'm cool with that." Sam?

"Alright, cool." She felt the table shift, as someone sat down at it. Lifting her arm, to block the sun, she cracked an eye open and peered, from the corner, at the freckled face of Lincoln. "Water?" He held a clear plastic bottle out to her.

The plastic crinkled under her fingers, and Carlota felt a surge of gratitude towards him, followed by regret that she hadn't brought her own. With violent twist of the cap, she had the lip of it against her own lips, and she greedily gulped down the cool, life bringing, liquids. Tracks escaping from the corners of her lips, and running streams down the sides of her cheeks, as she guzzled.

She stopped when a quarter of the bottle was gone, and carefully held the remainder out to her savior. "Thanks".

"No problem." He smiled a chip toothed grin at her, and tipped the bottle back to take a gulp for himself.

She'd seriously underestimated how hard this was all going to be. She honestly should have expected it, but… She didn't know. She was a city girl. She wasn't sure she remembered the last time she rode a bike. Probably when she was just learning how to do it. She was eight, or something. Maybe ten.

"This place is cool." Lincoln spoke up from beside her again. "How'd you find it."

"My dad showed it to me." With a groan, Carlota managed to roll herself over onto her side, to take in the conversation between Lincoln and Sam. "I don't know how he found it, but I've been coming here ever since."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. It's…" Pausing, the musician leaned back for a moment, and slowly swept her gaze across the area around them. "It's really nice actually. The trees surrounding it make it seem isolated from the rest of the world." Stopping again, she blew out a breath. "Sometimes it's nice to just come here and forget about your problems for a bit."

"Oh, yeah?" Ronnie broke it. "You come here a lot?" It was cute, in a way, how Anne was like that. Carlota didn't know if the others were fooled, but she was familiar enough with her cousin to know a probing question when she heard one. Little Anne got just as stressed out as everyone else, she just preferred not to show it. Like is wasn't tough to be visibly worn down. Maybe it wasn't, but Carlota thought it was just kind of silly.

"I used to come here all the time, with Luna." Sam took a gulp from her bottle. "I was probably down here once a week, or so. These days I've only been coming a couple of times a month, roughly."

"Huh. I wouldn't have thought Luna would like this kind of thing." Lincoln offered the bottle to her again, and Carlota took it with another spark of gratitude, as the white capped boy turned back around. "She's not usually excited about exercise."

"Yeah, she's…" Trailing off, Sam looked to the side. "She's a good friend."

"Yeah…" Lincoln stared off into space. "She is."

"Alright, well." Sam leapt to her feet. "Is everyone rested up enough to continue?" She asked as though she intended the question to be for everyone, but Carlota couldn't help but think it was directed at her. Though, it felt more like she was just trying not to single Carlota out, than anything else.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lincoln answered from beside her.

"Ready when you are." Ronnie responded.

"I'm okay…" She barely heard Haiku mutter. Probably the first time Carlota heard her say anything.

"Alright… I'm good." Sitting up with a groan of effort, Carlota swung her legs off the side of the table and hopped to the ground.

Setting her bike up again, she swung one of her legs over to the other side, and set herself down on the seat. She watched as the others set about readying their bikes to continue. Except Haiku, who merely sat herself down on the back of Sam's bike, when the musician got it on the trail. Carlota suddenly felt a flash of envy for the gloomy girl, but she shook it off. Bad feelings were always unpleasant, and rarely worth it. She'd just have to remember that the option was there for the next time. She might not take it though. As suck as it was to be exhausted, she wasn't super comfortable with how quickly she'd become tired. She always thought she was better than that.

"You ready?" Sam looked at her over her shoulder. "You'll be setting the pace this time."

Nodding, Carlota readied herself. Her muscles were still complaining, but they weren't screaming at her anymore, so she considered that a plus. She could make it the rest of the way… Probably… Taking a deep breath, she let it out slowly through her nose, and pushed off the ground.

Rolling ahead of everyone else, she locked the soles of her feet to the peddles, and allowed the force from her initial push carry her for a bit. Then, with a bit of effort, she began to peddle. Pushing just enough to keep her bike from falling over, she heard the slow clip of Lincoln's bike as the others moved to follow her. She didn't look back at them though.

She'd not really gotten the opportunity to do it before, because they were racing past everything so fast, but it really was nice here. The smell of due, leaves, and just… Nature, she guessed. It was… She was a city girl through and through, and nobody would ever take that from her, but she could see why people liked nature so much. If you ignored all the bugs, it was pretty great, and there weren't so many bugs around.

With the slow pace, and the calm scenery, she… Honestly she drifted off a bit. The time blurring in her mind, until she found herself, very suddenly, or maybe not, at the beginning of the trail again. She was also only sort of out of breath, and she honestly felt pretty relaxed… She could see where Sam was coming from, about the effect this place had.

Still, she shook her head. She had places to be, and she couldn't stick around forever.

"Hey Dude." Sam said, looking down at Lincoln. "Luna just texted me, asking if we could hang out." She held her phone up to show Lincoln the screen. "And I know that we were planning on hanging out all day, but I haven't spent that much time with Luna recently, and…" She didn't finish the question.

"Oh, no." A small frown crossed his expression, before a small smile replaced it. "No, that's fine. We spend a lot of time together. Go hang out with Luna."

"Thanks Lincoln," She chuckled, swooping down in a sudden movement, and placing a kiss against the corner of his lips. She chuckled again, at his reddening face, when she stood up, and waved over her shoulder as she mounted her bike once more and rode away.

Shaking herself, she turned to Lincoln herself. "Thanks for inviting me, but I've got places to be, and I'm Little Anne's ride."

"Oh, uh…" He trailed off a little, apparently caught off guard. Shaking himself her spoke again. "I was happy to have you… I mean, thanks for coming."

Nodding to herself, she turned to make her way back to her car. "Come on Ronnie Anne."

She walked a short distance, but stopped when she noticed that Ronnie wasn't walking with her. Turning back around she caught Ronnie Anne fiercely hugging Lincoln, and quickly letting go. Anne's face a deep shade of crimson, to match Lincoln's.

"Well… Alright, see ya." And little Anne rapidly crossed the distance to Carlota, steadfastly refusing to look in her older cousin's direction.

Making it back to the car, Carlota decided, for once, not to prod Ronnie until she was ready to say something herself. And it took a while. They were some distance down the road when Ronnie's face fading back more towards its usual coloring.

"So, did you like it?" Little Anne looked up at Carlota hopefully.

Did she like it?… Yeah, mostly. The second half of the bike ride was fun, and relaxing.

She already knew that Lincoln was basically a good kid, from the times they'd talked before, but this was… Well, she needed to make sure. If what she saw was anything to go by, and weird as it was, this honestly seemed like it was a good thing for all involved.

"Yeah, I had fun." Of course, one time wasn't really enough to draw any solid conclusions. Things looked good, but she wouldn't be doing her duty as an older cousin if she didn't make absolutely sure. "We should do it again sometime."

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Chapter notes:

Here's more factual information. Jumping spiders jump by pushing all the… Spider liquids… (I'm not sure if that counts as blood, or not.) into their back legs. The force is enough to launch them a considerable distance.

It never came up in the chapter itself, but if anyone's curious; the reason Lincoln asks Sam about whether or not it's cool with her if they slow down is because the date was Sam's idea. Lincoln didn't want to step on her toes, in case she had some plan, or something.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter ten, probably. I think the last one was nine. I don't know, sometimes I loose track of which chapter I'm on, and in which story.p class="p1"span

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With a long inhale, coffee goodness filled her senses. She exhaled a sigh of satisfaction, blowing the steam away from the lip of the mug. Her warmed hands wrapped around the ceramic, she lifted it to her lips and drew in a cautious sip. Savoring the dark, rich, flavor, even though it was just a little too hot. She'd never seriously had the patients to wait for coffee long. Besides, it was usually worth it. It certainly was this time.

The sound of her phone, buzzing against the table, had her cracking open an eye to look at it. A text from Lori. Carol swiped across the screen, and pulled up her friends most recent text. "Can you believe how much homework we're getting? It's literally insane."

Setting aside her cup, her fingers tapped the screen in a rapid fire response. "We could always study together." Pressing the send button, her eyes lingered on it for a second, waiting for her friend's answer.

The phone vibrated in her hand. "That's ok. I already have a study session planned with Bobby."

"Oh?" She typed out, a smile tugging the corners of her lips up. "Is this a study session, or a "study" session?"

"You're literally shameless. Lol." Not seriously.

Carol was pretty sure she didn't want to know. While romantic scenes, in movies, were seriously exciting to watch, she was pretty sure that was just because you were caught up in the moment. PDA was gross though. Not all the time, but people should take into account where they were, when they did stuff like that. Kissing was fine, but anything beyond that was seriously not okay. The only people who liked watching stuff like that were people who had serious voyeuristic tendencies, and they shouldn't be allowed to watch anyway.

"That's not an answer."

"It's a regular study session."

"Good, because I wouldn't want to have a talk with Bobby about how to properly treat a girl."

"Go ahead and try it. I have him wrapped around my fingers." Lori boasted. Though Carol suspected that she misunderstood the joke. She thought that Carol was joking about stealing her boyfriend. Carol wasn't going to correct her.

Setting her phone down, she brought her mug to her lips and drew in another gulp of roasted gold. Letting the warmth find her center and radiate out to the rest of her body. A breath of contentment escaped her lips, even as a flash of white caught her eye.

A white haired boy, in an orange polo shirt, was standing outside the movie theater across the street. Lincoln, probably. Him turning, so she could catch a glimpse of his cute, freckle spattered ,face, just confirmed it. For a moment, her mind flashed back to the last time she saw him. But that was taken care of. Even if not by her, she seriously struggled to imagine that anyone else would have have a more positive reaction. Still, he'd apparently gotten over it. So that was good. He was looking up at the show listings, above the door.

Taking in another sip, she let the rich liquid coat her tongue for a few seconds, before she gulped it down, and picked up her phone again.

"You're brother's across the street from me."

"Oh? What's he doing?"

Lifting her eyes from her phone, she cast her gaze back across the street, where the snow capped boy was looking up at the showings. Was he waiting for someone? It would be weird if he was just at the movies by himself, right? She never went alone anyway. Jerking his head to the side, she followed his eyes to see Ronnie jogging up to him. The hispanic girl snatching him into a quick hug, before letting go and turning away, her face crimson.

Carol took a quick picture with her phone, a feeling bubbling inside her, somewhere between giddiness, relief, and predatory. She'd just save that to her phone, and… There. It was seriously cute, and she'd never know when it might come in handy. Teasing was a good way to break the ice… And she might need that the next time they saw each other… Huh… She couldn't say she was seriously looking forward to that. Swiping through a few menus, she sent the picture off to Lori, for her to gush over.

Her phone buzzed. "That's literally the cutest thing I've ever seen."

"I know, right?"

She spent the next few minutes, idly watching the pair across the street, while she continued her text exchange with the boy's older sister. They weren't walking in. Instead standing in front of the theater still, talking and laughing. It was adorable, but… Nah, she was overthinking things. The proof was in front of her, and she was happy for them… Mostly him. She didn't really know the girl that well, but she'd always thought of Lincoln as being like the younger brother she didn't have. It wasn't really her place, but she had the urge to take the girl aside and talk to her, make sure she was good enough for Lincoln. He was a high quality catch, after all. Maybe she'd ask Lori about it.

Her thoughts were interrupted when an older girl snuck up behind the pair, and ruffled her fingers through Lincoln's hair. Dancing back, laughing, when he waved his arms above him and turned to her.

Huh…

That was… No, still no. She was seriously jumping the gun on this. Her knee jerk reaction. The worry still sat at the back of her mind, it turned out. She shook her head, and turned her attention back to the new girl.

Black hair, coffee skin, she was… Maybe the same height as Lori… Carol couldn't really judge from the distance, but she had some… Very well defined curves. A spark of apprehension caught in her throat. But, she looked like she was related to Ronnie. So… Maybe that was it? The older girl was there to chaperone? That was probably it, but she couldn't help how she felt. And they were still standing around. She'd feel better if… Her phone buzzed again, and she looked down at the screen.

"You still there?"

"Yeah, uh" She stopped typing. Putting the phone back in her pocket, without finishing. She'd… She'd tell Lori what happened later.

Her eyes shot back towards the three. Watching, waiting… For something. Carol wasn't sure, but she couldn't help the nervous tension that kept her muscles stiff.

They were still out there.

Carol almost lost track of him, when he suddenly darted from between the other two. Her eyes flicking past him momentarily, and coming back to find him dragging some other girl back to the group, her hand grasped within his own. The girl was blushing.

Who was she? Carol had never seen her before, though she kind of looked like Lori's sister, Lucy. When she'd first arrived, Carol hadn't noticed. She was keeping watch of Lincoln, and his… Group. With her standing so far away…

Carol's nails tapped a rhythm on the table, as she bounced one foot. Her muscles tense. She didn't like this. It was almost like… But no. That couldn't actually be what was happening, because Seriously, How? How? Carol seriously couldn't think of. It just couldn't happen. Nobody in their right mind would agree to that… Oh… A shiver went up her spine, because that left the possibility that he'd managed to find a group of people who weren't in their right mind.

With a jerking movement, she rose from the table and froze. Her eyes still glued to the group across the street. Because she didn't know what she was supposed to do. Call the police? Fishing her phone back out, her eyes stared blankly at her unfinished text. She stuffed it back in her pocket, gathered her jacket, and took a final glance out the window. Shuddering to a stop, at the arrival of another girl. Blond, with a green highlight through her hair.

Forcing herself to move again, Carol ignored the sight of the new girl wrapping Lincoln up in a hug, and gathered up her things. Pulling on her jacket, she made a B line for the door, and came out into the crisp, outside, air, just as the group was disappearing into the theater.

She jogged across the street, and marched up to the ticket booth.

"Hello, how can I help you today." The teen behind the counter flashed her a genuine smile, before his eyes dipped below her neckline for a few, groan worthy, seconds.

She had something she needed to do though, so she slipped on what she hoped was a convincing grin, and asked "You wouldn't happen to have seen a large group come through here? One boy, four girls? The boy had white hair?" She paused for a second. "I'm part of their group, but I got here seriously late. Do you think you could tell me which movie they bought tickets for?"

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Chapter Notes:

I debated on whether, or not, to write out their texts like they would have actually been written. On one hand, authenticity, and I care a lot about that… On the other hand it's well within my rights, as the author, to just decide that they all type with correct punctuation and spelling. It also takes less effort. At a certain point, you have to weigh your personal level of motivation against the end results. And I've decided that making the effort, to give them personal typing styles, wouldn't impact the quality of the end product enough to be worth it. Besides, they all already have different ways of speaking. I don't want to go through the effort again, just for something that's so small.

There was a bit at the end, where I was trying to channel a worried older sister, and I don't know if I totally succeeded.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter eleven. I'm not actually going to write this now. Just setting up the heading, before I move onto other things.

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Biting the knuckle of her thumb, Carol breathed deeply and evenly. She could feel Lincoln behind her, and she could just imagine him sitting on the edge of her bed, kicking his feet back and forth. An adorable expression of confusion on his freckled face.

Calling him over to her house, so soon, might have been a mistake. She probably could have learned more if she'd been patient and just watched them. But that was the problem, wasn't it? She wasn't patient… At least, not now. She couldn't be. But she didn't know how to broach the subject.

At a certain point, if she stood here silently for long enough, Lincoln was going to begin talking himself, and she wasn't sure how she'd handle that. No, she had to take the initiative first. A straight forward approach.

"What are you doing with…" She spun on the spot to face him, her finger up to make a point, but stopped. She didn't actually know any of the girls names. "Those girls? She finished lamely.

Leaning back on his arms, his head tilted to the side, he answered. "What girls? I hang around with a lot of girls."

Taking a breath, she lowered her finger, and composed herself. Then she took another breath to stall for time, because she didn't actually know what to say.

"A week ago, I saw you go into a movie theater with four other girls." She's just get to the point. "Not your sisters either. One of them was that other girl, you always hang out with."

"… Ronnie Anne?"

"Yes!" She pointed at him triumphantly.

"Okay?"

"I saw you with four other girls!"

"Yes, and?"

Gesturing wildly with her hands, she didn't understand what he wasn't getting. He was at the movies with four other girls! That was alarming! Two of them were seriously way older than him! What was he doing!? She froze and took another calming breath. Then another, and another, until her chest wasn't heaving so much, and she was able to do more than flail silently.

"A while ago you came to me about dating me…" Okay, she could do this. Just go ahead and say it. "Are you still… Doing that?"

"Yeah." He shrugged. "Did you change your mind?"

"No!" He leaned back from the force of the shout, eyes wide. "I mean… Um…" She coughed into her fist. "Are those girls part of it?"

"Why?" He looked suddenly more wary.

"I, uh… Are you okay?" Taking a step forward, she reached out as though to touch him, but stopped and let her hand drop. Instead just giving him a once over with her eyes. "Things are going fine with them? Or are you uncomfortable?"

"Yeah…" He trailed off, looking to the side in thought. "I mean, I really like them."

"You don't ever feel like you're… You don't feel like you don't get a choice?"

"No, things are going pretty great actually… Way better than I thought." He smiled up at her.

"Oh… Okay… That's good, I guess…" For some reason his answer wasn't reassuring. She blinked several times at the feeling of water gathering behind her eyes. But she wouldn't cry. It was… She didn't know if she should feel relieved, or even more upset. "Can I talk to them sometime?" She took a deep breath and sighed, at his puzzled look. "I just want to know what kind of people my little brother is dating."

Smiling sunnily at her, he nodded. "Sure!"

 **Oh, man. That took a while to write. Or maybe it just felt like a while.**

"So you finally caving, or what?" Ronnie Anne plopped down on Carol's bed, sending a small puff of dust into the air. There had to be a shorter version of her name, right? Did everyone the girl knew call her that, or did she have a nickname?

"What?" Carol hadn't really been paying attention.

"You joining the family, or not?" Ronnie shot her an unamused look.

"No." She cast her hand to the side, as though deflecting the question.

"Then what are we even doing here?"

"What are You," She aimed her accusing finger at the girl, "Doing with Lincoln?"

For a moment, Ronnie Anne was silent. Then, "Hanging out?" She looked at Carol like she thought Carol was stupid. It wasn't helping Carol's mood.

"NO!" She lifted her hands to grasp the air in front of her; but, with a heaving breath, she dropped her hands back down by her sides. "No. That's not what I'm asking."

"Well, what ARE you asking?"

"I…" She seriously didn't know. She needed to gather her thoughts. Taking a few moments to collect herself, she thought about what she actually wanted to know. She wanted to know that Lincoln was safe, that he wasn't being taken advantage of. "Describe this… Thing, you have going with Lincoln, and the other girls."

"Lincoln would be better at explaining it, than I am."

"I don't want to hear Lincoln's explanation." She chopped the air. "I want to hear yours; in your own words."

"I…" Trailing off, Ronnie looked off to the side, in thought. "It's…" She stopped again, and glared at Carol. "Before I say this, I want you to know that I wouldn't be telling you, except that Lincoln still wants you to join, and if he was in here with us… Well." She blew out a breath, and lay back on Carol's bed. "It's not the same thing to me that it is to Lincoln. I don't need it, but he does, so… I was resistant to the idea, at first. I almost said no. I'm kind of glad I didn't." Pausing, she stared up at the ceiling. "For him, I think it's almost like life support… I don't really get it, but that's what it feels like." She took another slow breath. "For me… You know how it feels when you step into your house, after a long day, and your entire family is there to cheer you up? It feels like that… I, uh…" She sighed. "I can't really describe it better than that."

"It feels like home?"

The girl frowned, but remained silent.

 **There was a certain… Difficulty there. Having two people, both notable for their similarity to Lori, talking to each other.**

As soon as she closed the door, and heard the telltale sound of springs groaning under weight, Carol swung around to glare at the blond guitarist on her bed.

"It's pretty weird, right?" She broke the silence, before Carol could think to say anything. "This whole thing. It's why you're here, right?"

"I…" Carol honestly didn't know how to respond. She'd never expected one of them to just spell it out. "Yeah." She wasn't sure if it was a good sign or not.

"So what do you want to know?"

What did she want to know? In the time leading up to this, and with all the new stuff she had to think over from what Ronnie said, her thoughts had become seriously muddled. They were like a tornado of general anxiety. The question forced her to focus. What did she want to know? She wanted to know that Lincoln was safe and happy. But she couldn't just ask that…

"How does this whole thing work?" She asked instead.

"Why? You looking to join?" The blond musician looked back at her with half lidded eyes, filled with humor.

"No…"

"Hmm, well. I don't know what to tell you." The younger blond shrugged. "I usually just go with the flow."

"Could you try anyway?" A spark of annoyance snapped into existence inside Carol.

For a moment, the other girl was silent. Just tilting her head from side to side, as though she was trying to take in all of Carol, or like she was thinking over her words.

"You really care, don't you?"

"What?" She was taken aback, and a little pissed. "Of course I care. Lincoln's like a brother to me!" Her teeth snapped shut on the last word, and she inhaled sharply through her teeth. She hadn't meant to tell her that.

She wasn't being fair, and she knew that, but she found that she didn't like this girl much. Carol's hands balled into fists at her side.

"Okay." Sharp shrugged, then tilted her head back and remained quiet. Staring intently at the ceiling. Her brow furrowed. "I…" She started and stopped again. "I don't really know how it works… That's… Not helpful. Let me, uh…" Leaning forward, she put her chin in her hands, and focused on the rug. "I said that I go with the flow. It's just that the flow always brings me back to them, and… I'm okay with that. I like Lincoln, and the others. I might love them, but… I don't want to say for sure yet… I think it's the same for the others." Sighing, Sam caught her eye, and held it. "I'm sorry that isn't useful, but… I don't think I can give a better explanation than that."

 **Here, have a stomach ache. I don't want it anymore.**

Once she'd calmed her nerves enough not to snap at the next person who came in her room, she guided the other, older, girl up. Her name was Carlota, Carol was pretty sure.

Closing the door behind them, Carol stood, her face inches from the wood, and her hands clenching on the knob. Taking a deep breath, she filled her lungs to the top, and let it out. Her grip relaxing on the knob, as her breath slowly escaped her lungs. Then she turned.

Carlota was sitting patiently on her bed. A small smile splitting her lips. And Carol didn't know if that was better, or worse. At some point, these interrogations had gone seriously off the rails. It had started off promising enough, with her talk to Lincoln, and her interrogation of Ronnie Anne. Then she'd talked to that Sharp girl, and… She'd said things she hadn't meant to…

Her hand clenched, catching some loose fabric on her skirt, and bunching it up.

She just wanted to know that her little brother was safe. How was she supposed to make sure, if they knew what she was looking for? Lincoln seemed happy enough, but she couldn't just leave it at that.

"So…" Carlota spoke into the silence. "Sam told me what this is all about, and I just want you to know that I totally understand."

"Understand what?" It was possible that the Sharp girl actually hadn't figured out what Carol was trying to do. Unlikely, but possible.

"That you're doing this because you're worried about Link." Carol felt her muscles tense. "And I totally get it. I only even got drawn in because I was worried about Ronnie."

Carol didn't believe her. She couldn't afford to. They knew what she wanted to know, so anything they said was suspect.

Schooling her expression blank, she fixed Carlota with a cool gaze, and organized her thoughts. "Describe." No. She stopped. She couldn't ask the girl to do that. She had to come at it from a different angle. Closing her eyes, she furrowed her brow and thought. "What do you get out of this relationship?"

"Huh…" Carlota leaned back on her hands, and glanced up in thought. "I don't know that I get anything specific, other than a good relationship with some very cool people… I just love easily, I think." She shrugged, and Carol wasn't happy.

Taking another breath to calm herself, Carol could feel a heat building up inside her. A feeling of helplessness, that she wasn't used to. Was Carlota telling the truth? Carol didn't know, and it left her… She hated it.

"Just… Send Lincoln back up here, when you get down."

"You don't want to talk to Haiku?" Carol seemed surprised.

"No." She sighed.

 **Recently got a special kind of super black paint. It absorbs something like ninety-percent of all the light shined on it.**

With her white haired pseudo brother back on her bed, Carol had to make a decision. What to do going forward. She could just tell Lori, but… Lori could overreact sometimes. As much as Carol was worried herself; she didn't want to ruin this for Lincoln, in the case that it was healthy.

"Lincoln." She made sure she had his attention. "I've changed my mind. I want to join you."

"Really?!" His face lit up like the sun, and Carol suddenly had to contend with a level of guilt, to go along with her worry.

"…Yes." This could only end badly. He'd be crushed when she eventually left, but… If the other girls were taking advantage of him, they couldn't keep up the act while she was there to constantly watch them./

If they were taking advantage of him, if was better that she catch it now, before it destroyed him. If they weren't… Well, then he'd have them to support him when she left. Was it a perfect solution? No. But it was the best one she had.

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Chapter notes:

Tell me if you notice anything off about the way this chapter flows. Specifically if you notice anything wrong with the emotional flow. Something feels iffy to me, but I can't put my finger on it.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter twelve. Okay, so let's just figure out how to start this chapter…

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"See," Carol looked to the side, where Lincoln and Haiku where crouched and huddled. "There's this line across." He pointed at the gloomy girls putter. "So as long as you hit the ball straight on, it'll go in whatever direction the line is pointing."

"You can't do that!" She turned back to the main group, where she was waiting for her turn. Ronnie Anne stood next to the hole, looking mildly pissed, as Sam lay on her stomach.

The musician was lining up her shot like she was playing pool, and sliding the handle of the putter between her hands like it was a pool cue, getting ready to hit her ball.

"Why not? There are no rules against it." Her words were muffled by the fact that she was facing away, and speaking into the ground, so Carol couldn't seriously hear what she was saying, but she she felt like she knew Sam well enough to know how she would have responded to Ronnie. And she definitely did say something. Carol knew that much.

"She means that it's not in the spirit of the game." Carol put in, walking over herself.

Looking up from where she was still considering her shot, Sam cast Carol an unimpressed glance. "The spirit of the game is in having fun." She responded. Her voice no less muffled, but the extra proximity helped Carol hear her for real this time. "So I'm going to play in the way that I think is fun."

As Ronnie threw up hands up in exasperation, Carol couldn't help but think that Sam wasn't entirely wrong. The spirit of the game was in everyone having fun, not just individual people. So the rules were there to prevent one person from ruining the game for everyone else. That said, Carol had to concede that, as Sam had pointed out, there wasn't actually a rule against it. So she supposed there was nothing stopping everyone else from using Sam's tactic.

Finally making the shot, Carol watched as Sam's ball shot forward at an angle. It was obviously going to miss the hole, but she supposed that was why people didn't try to play mini gold like it was pool more often. The rounded head of the putters handle meant that you were pretty much guaranteed to miss.

Huffing, Sam climbed to her feet and tread over to her ball, kicking it in.

"Really?!" Ronnie gestured wildly at Sam, as though she was trying to articulate some thought, but it just wasn't coming together in her head.

"What's going on?" Lincoln stepped up to the hole they were on, Haiku trailing behind him. He looked between the others with an expression of concern and mild confusion.

"Little Anne is irritated, because she failed a test earlier today, and she's taking it out on Sam." Carlota cut in. Her chin resting on the handle of her putter, while she sat on a bench to the side, waiting for the others to be done with the hole.

"Oh…" Lincoln trailed off, his confusion visibly growing. "I… Is being here making it worse? You didn't have to come if you didn't want to."

"No! I…" Throwing her head back, Ronnie stared into the sky for a minute, breathing deeply in and out. "I want to be here." She exhaled sharply. "I just." She seemed to struggle for words. "Sam, I'm sorry. I just need some time to cool off; I'm going to do get a drink." Shoving her hands in her pockets, Ronnie stomped off towards a vending machine off to the side of the sixteenth hole.

"What test did she fail?" Carol was a little startled to hear Haiku's question. The darker girl only rarely spoke.

"History." Carlota commented idly, watching her cousins retreating back. "Apparently she studied the wrong thing."

"Ooo." Lincoln hissed sympathetically. "That's happened to me. It sucks."

For a few seconds they were silent, staring off in the direction that Ronnie Anne had stomped.

"Well, Carol, it's your turn." Sam spoke up.

"What?" What were they doing? "Oh." Mini golf.

Dropping her ball at the starting space, she carefully lined up her shot. Breathing in deeply, to feel the cool air fill her lungs, she felt the wind and putted on her exhale. The ball curving on a path that looked like it was going to miss, but her estimations weren't wrong, and at the very end the wind finally pushed the ball back in line with the hole. Hole in one. Her fingers curled into a fist, and she made a subdued fist pump at her side. She got holes in one often enough, but she couldn't help the burst of pride that bloomed in her every time she did.

"Alright Lincoln, you're up." She stepped aside to let him take his place.

She took a moment to consider his form as he lined up his shot. It wasn't bad. But then, she supposed that his older sister was Lori… His ball rolled to a stop a few inches from the hole.

"So how's that song you're working on going?" Carlota turned to regard Sam. Though Carol wasn't really paying attention to them. Her thoughts sliding back to Lori.

Her stomach fluttered uncomfortably, her feelings seriously confused. She struggled to find an angle to attack them from. An angle to figure everything out. Of course, she glanced around at her friends, maybe this wasn't the best time to think about those thing… Or maybe it was. She wouldn't ignore them for much longer. She'd been doing that enough recently.

It wasn't like her to procrastinate like that, but… She pushed passed the thought. She'd trapped herself in a web of uncertainty. She'd just do it. Go until she found something she could latch on to.

Lincoln was fun to hang out with. That was easy. He was a good kid… He was also her friend, by this point. She wasn't going to seriously try to deny that. With as much time as she spent with him, he was her friend. He was also good boyfriend material, Carol… Well, he was a kid, right? She didn't… He was a good boyfriend, but Carol was… Hesitant.

"Hey, I'm back." Ronnie Anne sighed, waving as she cracked the top of her soda and gulped a mouthful down. "Sorry Sam." She sat down on the bench, beside her cousin.

"You already apologized." Sam pointed out.

"Yeah…" The Hispanic girl heaved a sigh. "But I didn't really mean it, I was just frustrated." She frowned. "So, sorry."

"It's cool." The musician waved it off. "We all have off days."

Carol found herself nodding absently, in agreement with Sam's reply, even as the group moved on to the next hole. Carlota stepping up to the green and dropping her ball. She stuck her tongue out, and narrowed her eyes, in concentration.

… It was… Carol's eyes took in the scene before her. It was seriously heart warming. Huffing, Carol closed her eyes.

She couldn't seriously… At this point, she knew that her initial fears were wrong. Whatever she would have found, if the girls were taking advantage of Lincoln, she hadn't found it. It was a seriously odd relationship, but… She couldn't find anything wrong with it. She could even see why the other girls were in it. The problem was that she couldn't be.

She had to break it off. She couldn't stay in a relationship with Lincoln. No, she mentally corrected herself. She wasn't in a relationship with Lincoln. This was… God, she couldn't seriously lie to herself. She was in a relationship with Lincoln. That was the worst part though, because she wasn't supposed to be. She was only supposed to have stuck around until she was sure that the others were taking advantage of him, but she'd stayed much longer than it took to figure that out. She'd stayed because she didn't want to go.

She didn't want to hurt him. She didn't want to hurt them… But she couldn't stay. Wasn't it inherently dishonest to enter a relationship when you didn't even think of the other person romantically? That's what she did, right? So she should break up with him, so that he wasn't hurt later, when he either found out, or she found someone else… The thought opened a pit of dread in her stomach… So, she should stay? No. That…

If she stayed, she'd have to tell Lori, right? She was dating Lori's brother. Didn't her best friend deserve to know? But would telling her be betraying Lincoln's trust? If he hadn't told her, than he obviously didn't want her to know. Or he just didn't think it was important enough to tell them? No, she'd seen how happy he was with the group. If this wasn't important to him, he wasn't the person she thought he was. So she shouldn't tell Lori? But, God! She was still Lori's best friend, and surely Lori would want to know about it. Even if for no other reason than because her brother was involved.

The solution was obviously to break up with Lincoln, because then she wouldn't have to betray his trust by telling Lori, and she wouldn't have to betray Lori's trust by not telling her. Her fist clenched white at her side.

God Dammit! She screamed internally, even as she fought to keep from reacting physically. She didn't want to worry the others.

She couldn't stay like this though. She'd have a meltdown eventually, if she did. So she had to make a choice… Or a couple. Was she going to stay with Lincoln? And, if she did, was she going to tell Lori?

Of course, watching her friends, she felt like she already knew the answers to those questions…

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End file.
